


Welcome to Night Vale

by sssssssim



Category: Teen Wolf (TV)
Genre: A WHOLE LOT OF NIGHT VALE REFERENCES, Alpha Scott McCall, Angst, Drowning, Ghosts, Hurt Stiles, Injury, M/M, Magic, Near Death Experiences, Nightmares, Siren, Slow Build, Tattooed Stiles, Welcome to Night Vale setting, accidentally!high Derek, kraken - Freeform, monsters of the week - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-01-18
Updated: 2014-03-07
Packaged: 2018-01-09 04:32:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 6
Words: 39,395
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1141471
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/sssssssim/pseuds/sssssssim
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>When Derek drives his pack into Night Vale, he's not sure what to expect. Drugs? Magic? Aliens?  He sure as hell wasn't expecting someone like Stiles.</p><p>-</p><p>Or the one in which Stiles is The Voice of Night Vale (aka Cecil) and Derek is the perfect scientist who comes to town (aka Carlos). Derek's an Alpha, his pack is also his team of scientist assigned for this project, Stiles' father is the Sheriff of The Sheriff's Secret Police, general Night Vale weirdness ensures.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> So this is a thing that is happening. I feel like there's more of a Sterek part of this story, than a Night Vale part (I think. Kind of. Yeah...). But there's a lot of things you won't understand if you don't know Night Vale. I mean, feel free to read it, even if you're not a fan of the podcast. And if you get to a point when something doesn't make sense just... blame it on Night Vale.  
> I'll update the tags as the story progresses. Be warned, I'm like... 23k words in at this point, and I'm nowhere near finished.  
> Unbetad, so please point out where I screwed it up. Constructive criticism is always welcomed. I'm begging you to give it to me, tbh. If you don't understand something, or you want clarifications, please, feel free to ask. Here, or on [tumblr](http://sssssssim.tumblr.com/ask). I'll gladly talk to you! :)

Derek is skeptical. That is his current mood: _skeptical_. He’s always been skeptical, of a lot of things, but now, that feeling has reached its peak.

He’s in his car, with Lydia in the passenger seat. Isaac and Allison are driving in the van behind them. They have one more hour of driving until they reach Night Vale, or so his GPS says. And Derek is highly skeptical.

‘So what are we expecting?’, Lydia asks, not lifting her eyes up from her tablet.

‘You know what we’re expecting, you’ve read the reports’, Derek says. ‘Inexplicable phenomenons, medical, biological, physical, mechanical, and so on and so forth.’

‘Yes, I’ve read the official reports, Derek. I was asking for your unofficial opinion.’          

‘I have no idea’, he smiles. ‘Aliens? Magic? Drugs in the water? Anything, really. ‘

‘You’re excited’, Lydia says, raising an eyebrow and staring him down.

‘No, I wouldn’t say that. I’m intrigued. And highly skeptical.’

‘Skeptical?’

‘Well it can’t be aliens, can it? I’m thinking it’s just a big scam.’

‘But there have been a lot of scientists before us’, Lydia argues. ‘You, what, you think they’re all lying?’

‘I don’t know. And it’s not like I could ask them, because the ones that haven’t stayed in Night Vale and went mad, died in Night Vale. And the reports are… inconclusive, to say the least.’

‘And aren’t you concerned about that?’, Lydia frowned.

‘You know I am. We’ve talked about this before, I told you the risks.’, he responds, more forcefully than he should have. ‘I asked you if you were sure, Lydia. I asked all of you, I made sure you knew what you were getting yourself into.  I didn’t force you into coming with me.’

‘I know, oh Alpha, my Alpha.’, Lydia rolls her eyes. ‘I’m just saying, this isn’t like you. You don’t… throw yourself head first into a potentially dangerous situation. Not anymore.’

Derek shrugs, he knows she’s right. ‘Would you believe me if I told you I was bored?’

‘No. But I’ll drop it for now.’, Lydia smiles.

Truth is, Derek knows how insane this is. When his superior at the research institute told him about Night Vale and handled him the files, Derek’s heart skipped a beat. He doesn’t know why, but as he read the reports of the scientists before him, he grew more and more intrigued. Two hours later, he told his superior he was willing to move to Night Vale for the next couple of months, and that he will try his best to get to the bottom of things. As far as impulsive decisions go… Well. Derek was never an impulsive guy. Not until he heard of Night Vale.

When he asked for a team to accompany him, his superior wisely told him he can have whomever, even if they’re not working for the institute at the moment, and handled him a huge pile of contracts, disclaimers and all the other paper work necessary.

Derek went home that evening, scheduling a pack meeting for the next day. Isaac was his beta, and a veterinarian. Allison was a biologist and a former hunter, Lydia was a geneticist and a banshee, and along with him, the engineer and the Alpha, they made a pretty good team. They also made a pretty good pack. They have been working on that for the past couple of years, but they have reached a point in which they were comfortable enough with each other, no matter of the awful situations that led them here.

He knew he’d go to Night Vale either way, with or without his pack. Derek was convinced they’d understand him. It’s been 10 years since the fire that killed his family, his old pack. It’s been 4 years since a hunter killed Laura, his sister, the power of Alpha transferring on to him. It’s been 3 and a half years since he’s bit Isaac. It’s been 3 years since Derek has immersed himself into his work, having no relationships outside of coworkers or his pack. They’d understand his need for a change.

But, once again, his pack surprised him.

‘Luckily enough’, Lydia shrugged, ‘this project appeared at a point when none of us have anything here. I don’t know about Allison and Isaac, but I’m excited to get out of New York for a while.’

‘Yeah’, Allison smiled. ‘It’ll be like a vacation. But with the fun of solving mysteries.’

‘A vacation?’, Isaac raised an eyebrow. ‘Derek just told us that he has no idea what is happening in that town and that all the former scientist are either there and slightly insane, or dead.’

‘So what? You’re not coming?’, Allison crossed her arms over her chest.

‘Of course I’m coming.’, Isaac rolled his eyes. ‘As Lydia pointed out, there’s nothing here for me except my pack. I’m just saying, this won’t be fun. This will probably be mental.’

‘Probably’, Derek smiled.

‘Now, now.’, Lydia shook her head. ‘If anybody can get to the bottom of Night Vale, it’s clearly us. A couple of wolves, a hunter and a banshee, all with several phd’s? Easy-peasy.’

Derek laughed. ‘We leave in a month. I already found a lab to rent, and a hotel close by. We should coordinate on the tech we need to bring with us, though. The lab is pretty basic and –‘

In the end, Derek grew excited. This felt like an adventure, and he was glad he was going to share it with his pack. But, the scientist in him was skeptical. He had no idea what waited for them in Night Vale, but he knew aliens and magic didn’t exist. Which is an ironic thing for him to say, considering he’s a werewolf. But Lydia was right, if there was a group capable of getting to the bottom of things in Night Vale, it was his pack.

-

Derek’s watch said they entered Night Vale at 8pm. He doesn’t know what he was expecting, but it wasn’t this. Night Vale seemed normal. A very normal, very dull, very dry town in the middle of the desert. It had supermarkets, diners, pharmacies, a big radio tower that was higher than any other construction in town. It had dog parks and wide sidewalks, parking spaces and nice houses. Derek’s heightened senses didn’t pick up anything strange either, and for that he was thankful.

As they decided, they went to the lab first, to drop off the equipment they bought with them. The lab was in an old warehouse, but it was more than enough for what they’ll need. It even had a small kitchen, equipped with a fridge and a fancy coffee maker that made the girls whistle. And Isaac’s reaction when he saw that the lab was next to a place called Big Rico’s Pizza, the pure joy on his face made him look like a 12 year old. Derek smiled and started bringing up the equipment from the van, even though they all decided they’ll install it properly the next morning.

Ten minutes after they arrived, Derek was making his way back towards the van when a woman came to a stop right in front of him. She was beautiful, tall, dark hair and skin, bright green eyes, wearing an expensive gray suit and high heels. But she smelled off, like a swamp. The smell was almost hurtful, but he managed not to let it show.

‘Hello. It’s Derek, right? You’re the scientist from New York.’, she said, giving him a once over, from head to toe.

He tried not to flinch. ‘Yes, that’s me. May I help you?’

‘I’ve scheduled a press conference tomorrow. Noon, at the City Hall. The City Council and I believe it’s important for the people to hear that you’re not here to do any harm. ‘

‘I’m sorry’, Derek blinks. ‘Who are you?’

‘The Mayor.’, the woman says, lifting an eyebrow.

‘Oh. Excuse me, Mayor. Uhm’, he frowns. ‘I don’t think a press conference is necessary. We-‘

‘It is’, the woman cut him off. ‘If you don’t talk to the people before you start doing… whatever it is you’re here to do, then all the people in Night Vale won’t like you or your team and they will think you’re here to, pardon my language, fuck things up. And we cannot have that. So you will be there tomorrow at noon, you will start with a small speech, continue with a small Q&A and that will be that.’

Derek hesitated. The woman sighed.

‘Look at it this way, kid. You do this, the people like you, they’ll be willing to help you if you need it, it’s easier to do your job. You don’t do this, the people hate you, it’ll be harder to do your job. The teams that came here before you didn’t have the citizen’s approval, and you know how badly that ended.’

When Derek didn’t say anything for a few moments, she nodded. ‘Good. I’ll see you tomorrow, then. Do you know where the City Hall is? Or do you want me to have one of the men in the Sheriff’s Secret Police escort you?’

Derek blinked. ‘No, I know where it is. We passed it coming into town. The Sheriff’s Secret Police?’, he frowned.

‘Allright. See you soon.’, she turned around, not answering his question. Between one blink and another, Derek couldn’t see her on the street anymore.

Isaac came outside of the lab, putting a comforting hand on his Alpha’s shoulder. ‘Are you really going to do a press conference?’

‘Apparently.’, he shook his head. ‘There uh… There was something wrong with her.’

‘What?’

‘She didn’t exactly smell human.’

Isaac’s eyes grew wide, but he didn’t say anything.

‘I mean, she still smelled a bit human, but it was like it was buried under a lot of other things.’

‘Like what?’

‘Water. Dirt. Mud. She smelled like a swamp.’

Isaac sighed. ‘I think you had a stressful couple of weeks and a long drive and you’re tired and you need some sleep.’

‘Yeah.’, Derek sighed. ‘You’re probably right.’

-

All in all, the conference went surprisingly well. He went on stage and read the speech Lydia wrote him, taking comfort in Isaac’s presence, even if he was across the room (the girls decided to stay at the lab because they weren’t done installing all their equipment). Afterwards, a few people asked him questions. They started off being defensive and quite rude, but Derek managed to turn them around.

He saw the people relax, quite visibly, and some of them even started to smile. Derek thought he’s done a good job.

When the Mayor announces that they only have time for one more question, a few people stand up, but so does a man in the front row. He turns toward the rest of the room, and Derek can’t see his face, but all the rest of the people sit down, leaving the last question to him.

Derek’s breath catches when the man smiles at him. He’s as tall as he is, not so muscular, but fit. Lean, and fit. His skin is pale, his hair is messy and standing up at weird angles. He’s wearing black pants, a red, plaid shirt and a pink vest over it. The outfit is completed by a pair of pink converse and a bright yellow tie. It’s eccentric, but he makes it work. But it’s the eyes that catch Derek’s attention. They’re big and soft, an amber color that almost flashes beta gold. He smiles and Derek can almost feel the happiness radiating off him.

‘I’m Stiles, I work at the Night Vale Community Radio’, the man says. His voice is smooth and calm, and Derek doesn’t even question that the radio job suits him like a glove. He sees some people sighing in content and smile at Stiles, as he talks.

‘My coworkers and I would be happy to assist you in any way we can, we’re quite excited about scientist investigating Night Vale’, Stiles says, giddy as a child, shaking his hands in front of himself. ‘I was just wondering how long you’ll be staying. Excuse me if I’m rude, but we’d like to know if we should get used to you and your team.’

Derek blinks. He doesn’t understand why Stiles is asking this question, why he said it like that, but he knows he has to answer it.

‘I don’t know how long we’ll be staying.’, he manages to say. ‘But we are willing to stay as long as we have to, in order to complete our investigations and complete this project.’

‘Great’, Stiles grins. ‘I’m sure you’ll enjoy our small community. How could you not?’

A few people in the audience chuckle at that and Derek smiles, as politely as he can manage around the lump in his throat.

The Mayor finishes the conference then, and Derek steps off the stage, heading towards Isaac. A few people introduce themselves and shake their hands on their way out. A sweet old lady, called Josie, hands them each a chocolate chip cookie. A weird young man, wearing a cheesy Indian headpiece, winks and wishes them good luck.

And then, Stiles and the Mayor are the only ones left. The man shakes hands with Isaac, but before the wolf can introduce himself, Stiles coos.

‘Oh my god, you’re so cute.’

Isaac freezes, and let’s go of Stiles’ hand. Derek can’t hold back the chuckle.

‘Oh crap, I’m sorry, I’m so sorry’, Stiles’ eyes are wide and he’s blushing. ‘That was highly unprofessional, please ignore me and let’s forget this happened.’

He turns towards Derek then, and smiles. ‘I’m very pleased to meet you. And thank you, for taking the time in coming down here and helping this community. I’m sorry the people were rude, but it’s understandable, a bit, we don’t get a lot of strangers around here. But you handled them perfectly, absolutely flawless, I’m sure you managed to turn them all over to your side.’ Stiles winks and Derek’s heart beat does a funny thing.

‘I can’t wait to see what you discover’, he goes on, clapping his hands for emphasis. ‘We’re all used to the way things are in Night Vale, but it’ll be interesting to see our lil’ old town through someone else’s eyes. And a genius scientist, nonetheless. Who knows what new things you’ll discover.’, he almost shrieks.

When he pauses for breath, Isaac coughs and speaks in a weary tone. ‘You seem pretty excited.’

Stiles chuckles. ‘I am, aren’t I? I just… I love science. It gets me giddy. The other day I was reading an article about the Hubble telescope, and even though I didn’t understand half of it, I ended up spending the day reading about stars and planets and constellations and galaxies and I almost painted the Milky Way on my ceiling. I stopped after five constellations or so, when I realized I forgot to take my Aderall and that maybe redecorating in the middle of the night wasn’t a good idea.’

Derek’s just staring, because Stiles talks with his whole body. With his eyebrows, and his nose, and his hands and his hips. He’s gorgeous, Derek realizes. And that makes him take a deep breath and move his sight to Stiles’ eyes, not his neck.

‘You do actually talk on the radio, right?’, Isaac asks.

Stiles rolls his eyes. ‘Gee, what gave it away?’, he shrugs. ‘I talk a lot, you’ll get used to it sooner or later, everyone does.’

He pulls out a business card from his back pocket and hands it over to Derek. He takes it, but he doesn’t look at it, because Stiles has long fingers, as pale as the rest of his body. And he can see tattoos peaking from under his shirt.

‘Call me if you need anything. That’s my personal number, feel free to call at any time, for anything. Really. Anything I can help you with, I’ll gladly do it.’

Derek looks up at Stiles’ face then, and manages to smile. ‘Thank you.’

‘You’re welcome. Now, if you’ll excuse me, if I don’t leave now, I’ll be late for my broadcast and I do not want to make the Station Management mad.’ He gives a full body shudder, and Derek has to swallow.

Then, he’s gone and the Mayor ushers him and Isaac out the door without saying another word.

It’s only when he’s in the car, Isaac driving to his left, when Derek looks at the card. It’s bright purple and it seems handwritten.

_Stiles Stilinski, NVCR  
 The Voice_

‘The Voice?’, he asks out loud.

‘Huh?’, Isaac frowns, not taking his eyes off the road.

‘That’s what the card says. Stiles Stilinski, what sort of a name is that anyway, Night Vale Community Radio, The Voice. And a phone number. That’s it. What the hell?’

Isaac chuckles. ‘You’re impressed.’

‘No’, Derek scoffs. ‘I’m confused.’

Isaac laughs. ‘Aha. Sure.’

They don’t say anything else till they get to the lab. When they go in, they see Allison and Lydia on the couch, with a radio in front of them. The girls aren’t moving and they’re staring at the machine.

But before he can ask what’s wrong, Derek hears the broadcast. It’s Stiles, with his strong, but calming voice.

‘… with his perfect hair and his perfect stubble and eyes the color of emerald. Derek the scientist is perfect and, dear listeners, he’s here to help us! To help Night Vale. Even though I know the community doesn’t think it needs the help of Derek and his team of scientist, who are we to judge? They’re here to do experiments, and complicated science we don’t really know much about. Who are we to get in their way? I say we should support them. Maybe things are wrong in Night Vale, maybe they’re not.  We’ll just have to wait and see. In the meantime, I think we can all be civil enough and help Derek and his team. If not, we can at least get out of their way. You don’t have to listen to me, I know I am not being objective here, like a journalist should. Love has blinded me, I know, but I can’t help it. And if you do not want to listen to me, then listen to the Mayor and the City Council, that have welcomed Derek and his team with open arms. That is all I will say on the subject for now, but you know me, this is a story that is far from being closed. But now, the weather.’

A song starts playing and they all sit in silence for a few beats.

‘How is that the weather?’, Isaac scoffs.

The girls look up and when they see Derek, they start laughing.

‘What the hell?’, he asks. When the girls don’t stop laughing, he turns to Isaac. ‘Was that Stiles?’

‘He sure was.’

‘You’ve met him?’, Lydia shrieks.

‘He was at the conference.’, Derek shrugs.

‘He’s in love with you.’, Allison says softly, even though she’s still giggling.

‘Excuse me?’

‘He’s been talking for the past 10 minutes about Derek the scientist’, Lydia explains. ‘With his perfectly pressed lab coat, and his perfect hair, and his perfect arms and teeth and his perfect eyes and…’ she starts laughing again.

Derek knows he’s blushing, and that his heart is beating a bit faster. Isaac can pick it up, but he knows his beta won’t say anything. Instead, he just turns towards his Alpha and smirks.

‘The Voice, huh? Still not impressed?’

‘Still confused’, Derek nods and makes his way towards his work table, ignoring the laughter of his team mates.

-

Two weeks pass, and Derek feels lost. He doesn’t understand anything that is happening in Night Vale.

Some things, he takes for granted. Like the fact that some books are banned by the City Council, or that he is bound by law to eat at least a slice of Big Rico’s pizza a week. He doesn’t go near the dog park, he stopped looking for wheat products in the supermarket, he managed to find a way to record all his data without using pens. He got used to having cameras all over his hotel room and lab quickly enough, he was used to the lack of privacy because he grew up in a house filled with werewolves.

But he cannot understand what the glow cloud is, why it’s glowing and why animals are falling from it. They’re perfectly healthy, Isaac assures him, it’s just that their existence is impossible. He panics when all the children disappear, but he seems to be the only one.

He’s seen one of Josie’s angels, and he cannot understand how a bright light that’s giving small amounts of radiation can talk and posses a conscience. He doesn’t understand how the sun isn’t rising at the time it should.

His team is struggling. They’re all working hard, talking and throwing ideas on the table. They end up shouting at each other in frustration, and more than once Derek had to run to the supermarket and buy a bottle of expensive alcohol to calm everyone down.

But the thing that frustrates him the most, that annoys him to the point of rage, is Stiles. More so, Stiles’ show. Derek has always enjoyed listening to the radio. He doesn’t own an ipod, he almost never downloads music. He just turns on the radio and listens to random stations. Ever since he’s come to Night Vale, every time he gets the urge to turn on the radio, Stiles is on. Only Night Vale Community Radio broadcasts in this town, and every time, Derek hears Stiles’ voice. If it’s early in the morning, while he’s eating his breakfast, late at night when he can’t fall asleep or in the middle of the day, while he’s in the lab, Stiles’ calm voice greets him.

And the things Stiles says. Most of them, he appreciates. Stiles is a smart guy, and he’s funny and caring. Derek realizes he’s the type of person who gets invested in anything that happens around him, and the way he gets excited or proud while talking about a certain topic, that makes Derek respect him. But when he starts talking about him, Derek’s knees go weak and his face heats up.

He hasn’t even seen Stiles since the press conference, hasn’t talked to him at all, but Stiles is adamant in showing his affections. On his radio show. That the entire town seems to be listening to. People are looking at Derek everywhere he goes, winking and smiling and whispering about young love.

And Derek does not understand it. How can Stiles be in love with him? He doesn’t know him, at all. It’s impossible. Then, why does he keep saying it and talking about it?

‘He’s weird. Clearly.’, Lydia tells him after a particularly embarrassing broadcast. ‘But he doesn’t really say anything false.’

‘What do you mean?’, Derek frowns.

‘All the things he says about you, they’re true.’

‘Yes, Lydia, thank you. I do know that I look good and that my lab coat is always clean.’, he rolls his eyes.

‘That’s not what I mean, dumbass. All the _other_ things he says. That you’re dedicated and invested, that you’re stubborn and so on.’

‘I talked to him for 2 minutes. No, he talked at me for 2 minutes. All I said was _thank you_. How can he pretend he’s in love with me?’, he asks, frustrated.

‘Maybe it’s not pretend.’, Allison pipes up.

‘Then he’s insane’, Derek nods.

‘Look, man.’, Isaac puts a hand on his shoulder. ‘I know you’re not into dating after everything with Kate and Jennifer and Andrew, but you have to admit you’re attracted to him.’

Derek blinks.

‘And we know’, Lydia continues, ‘that self torture is written in your DNA, but you can’t live the rest of your life alone. You deserve better than that and we know for sure that Stiles is safe.’

‘He’s met me for 2 minutes and he says, on the radio, with everyone listening, that he’s in love with me. He’s a psycho!’, Derek says, getting more and more angry with were this conversation is going.

‘Maybe he’s not.’, Lydia slaps his arm. ‘You’ll never know if you don’t actually speak with him.’

‘And that is why’, Isaac grins, ‘we’ve all agreed you’ll be the one to go to the radio station today, to take the readings we need.’

‘No’, Derek says after a beat.

‘Yes.’, they all say together.

‘Absolutely not.’, he flashes his eyes.

‘Absolutely yes.’, Isaac nods, smirking.

‘Just go’, Lydia rolls her eyes. ‘We promise that if you come back and tell us that Stiles is a complete psycho and that you do not like him at all, we’ll let it go.’

‘Promise’, Allison smiles.

‘I’m supposed to be the Alpha’, Derek mumbles, but he’s already pulling out his phone, knowing he can’t get out of this.

He’s programmed Stiles’ phone number a while ago, in case he needed it. So he takes a deep breath, and gets out of the lab, around the back of the warehouse where they have a small garden in which girls put up a swing. Stiles answers after 3 rings.

‘Heeeeello?’

‘Stiles. Hello. This is Derek Hale.’

‘Oh, wow. Uhm. Hi, Derek. Yes. Hi, hello.’, he can hear Stiles smiling and Derek has to close his eyes.

‘I’m sorry, am I interrupting anything?’

‘No, of course not.  I told you, you can call me whenever. What’s up, dude?’

‘Don’t call me dude.’, Derek scoffs.

Stiles giggles. ‘Sorry’.

‘Look, my team found some weird readings coming from the radio station. Faint traces of radiations and other waves. I’d like to investigate some more.’

‘You want to come here? To do science?’, Stiles shrieks.

‘If that’s alright.’

‘Yes, yes, of course. I just have to ask Station Management, but you’re City Council approved, so it shouldn’t be a problem.’

‘Okay’, Derek frowns.

‘I’ll go ask them now, and I’ll call you back in a minute. Is that alright?’

‘Of course.’

‘Kay, bye.’

Stiles hangs up and Derek stares at the phone. Then he smiles, because Stiles sounded so excited, like a kid in a candy shop. He gets up and heads back into the lab, but before he makes it to the door, his phones rings. He doesn’t get to say anything, Stiles starts talking as soon as he picks up.

‘I didn’t even have to write the note for Station Management. They started chanting as soon as I hung up the phone. They said you’re welcomed here, that I don’t even have to question it anymore. But you should respect the terms and regulations of entering a building for the first time and you shouldn’t, under any circumstances, enter their offices. Obviously.’

‘Obviously’, Derek says, even though he doesn’t understand.

‘So when should I expect you?’, Stiles asks, and Derek hears him tapping his fingers on his desk, probably.

‘Whenever you’re free, I don’t want to interrupt your show.’

‘It starts in 4 hours, I’m free till then.’

‘You’re already there?’

‘Of course.’

Derek frowns. ‘Why?’

‘Why not?’, Stiles laughs. ‘You know, I don’t just come here and start reading from a piece of paper someone hands me. I have an actual journalistic job, not just a pleasant voice.’

‘Right. Sorry.’

‘No problem.’

‘I’ll be there in 20 minutes.’

‘Yay’, Stiles laughs. ‘See you soon, Derek.’

And he hangs up before Derek gets a chance to respond. He sighs and makes his way to the lab, picking up the equipment he needs and ignoring the looks his team is giving him.

He heads to the station with the conviction that he’s going to hate Stiles.        

-

Stiles is waiting for him outside of the station. Derek takes a moment to look at him, as he parks the car and gathers the equipment. He’s wearing a pair of bright red jeans, tucked into a pair of black combat boots. On top, Stiles has a Star Wars t-shirt, simple and black, with the logo on it, and a fur coat. He’s actually wearing a short, black, fur coat. His hair is still messy and he has glasses on, they’re turquoise. He’s smoking, a black cigarette that’s cherry flavored.

‘I know, I know, horrible habit’, Stiles smiles when Derek gets close enough. ‘But these are so good, I can’t help it. It’s not like I smoke a lot, just like four a day.’

‘I didn’t say anything’, Derek smiles, despite himself.

‘But you were thinking it, I saw it all over your eyebrows.’, he smirks, as he throws the stub in the trash.

‘I don’t know what that means’, Derek frowns. ‘But it’s not the first time I’ve heard it.’

Stiles just laughs and opens the door for him. They go through a small hallway and end up in a waiting area, with mismatched couches and a small kitchen. There’s a large window, and Derek can see the broadcasting area.

When he turns around, Stiles is throwing his jacket on one of the couches and Derek gasps. Because Stiles has tattoos, a lot of them, going even under the sleeves of his t-shirt. Both his arms are covered in thick, black lines, swirls and circles, and it takes Derek a bit too long to realize they’re tentacles. They seem so fluid, like they’re moving, and the pale skin underneath them makes them look … dead.

‘Not a fan of tattoos?’, Stiles asks and Derek snaps his head to look into his eyes. He finds uncertainty.

‘No, no, it’s not that, sorry. I just… I noticed you had tattoos, but you were wearing a long sleeved shirt when we first met.’ As soon as the words are out of his mouth, Derek blushes.

Stiles smiles. ‘A lot of people don’t approve of them. They find them disturbing. And threatening, for some reason.’

‘But they’re amazing’, Derek frowns. ‘They’re really well made, the artist did a great job. It’s hard to get such a detailed filled shape, and on such a flexible area.’

‘Takes one to know one?’

‘Yeah’, Derek nods. ‘I have one on my back. Not as big as yours, though.’

‘What of?’

‘A triskele’, he answers absently, still looking at Stiles’ arms.

‘Celtic mythology.’

‘Yeah.’, Derek blinks and looks at Stiles again. ‘Why do you know that? Most people don’t know that.’

‘Most people aren’t addicted to Wikipedia.’, he scoffs. ‘What does it mean?’

‘It’s a family thing.’, Derek manages to say, even if it still hurts him. Stiles must pick up on it, because he nods and smiles.

‘What about you? Why tentacles?’

Stiles grins. ‘The Kraken changed my life.’

‘Lovecraft?’, Derek frowns.

‘No. Well, yeah, I have read it, but I met the Kraken and it was a life changing experience.’

Derek blinks and frowns, but he can’t think of anything to say.

‘Do you want anything to drink?’, Stiles asks as he moves around Derek, brushing his hand against his forearm. It tingles.

‘No, thank you. I should really get to these readings.’

‘Yes, science!’ Stiles pumps a fist in the air. ‘Where do you want me, what can I do? What are you doing, what do you need?’

Derek smiles and tries to hide it by taking out his equipment. ‘I just need to… walk around the building, basically. Gather some more readings, which I’ll analyze later at the lab, with the help of my team.’

‘That’s it?’, Stiles frowns.

‘That’s it.’

‘Well, there’s not much I can help you with, then. Here’s the chillout room, there’s the broadcasting cube, as we call it. After that, there’s Scott’s office and down the hall there’s the station Management headquarters.’

‘Scott?’

‘The intern.’, Stiles grins. ‘Well. He’s been my best friend since forever, he’s my brother, even though we didn’t really succeed in our mission to hook up my dad and his mom, but he’s my brother from another mother, you know? And he pretends to be my intern around here when he’s not helping Doctor Deaton down at the vet clinic.’

‘What about the rest of the building? This is the tallest one around. What’s on the other floors?’, Derek tries to stop Stiles’ babble.

‘There’s not much. Most of the rooms are filled with the Archive of the station, you know. The old ones are on tape, and the radio switched to digital 10 years ago or so. But, it doesn’t really matter, cause those rooms are off-limits. Station Management orders. And the ones that are not part of the Archive, they’re used by them. So…’. Stiles shrugs and grabs a Red Bull from the fridge. Then he drinks from it and Derek sees the long expanse of his neck, so he turns around quickly and tries to concentrate.

‘So you have this huge building, but you’re only using the first floor.’

‘We don’t really need anything else.’, Stiles smiles. ‘Look, I still have some work to do, and Scott doesn’t come in today until the broadcast. So if you don’t need me to do anything, I’ll just patiently sit here and finish my work while you go around and do science stuff. Okay?’

‘Sure’, Derek nods. ‘I won’t be long.’

‘Oh, take your time. It’s no problem.’, Stiles smiles and sits on one of the couches, picking up a laptop and opening it up. The computer matches his glasses, its bright turquoise.

Derek shakes his head to clear his thoughts and starts his equipment. He feels weird being in the recording studio without Stiles there, so he leaves the door open. The room isn’t filled with tech, as he thought it’ll be, but the main desk is piled with three different computers, a mixing table and other small things Derek doesn’t recognize. The place isn’t personalized, at all, which he finds surprising. The walls are covered in that type of sponge that cancels noise, and the only thing that gives the place a personal touch is the fluffy purple blanket that is sitting on the chair. But the whole booth smells like Stiles, only like Stiles: cherry cigarettes, lemon scented fabric softener, black coffee, and under all of that, the sea. To Derek, Stiles smells like the sea.

He’s snapped out of his thoughts when the device in his hand starts beeping.

‘That doesn’t sound good’, Stiles says from the doorway.

‘There’s high amounts of gama radiations’, Derek says, absently. ‘And other radiations I don’t know. And they all seem to be coming from the microphone.’

‘Well it is a pretty special mic.’

Derek looks to Stiles at that. He’s smiling. ‘I got it from a British guy I met when I was in Europe. He came from an old family of druids, like… really old. Ancient. The night before I left to come back here, he just handed me the mic, said he’d made it especially for me, that it will guide me through my life and help me when I’ll be in distress. He also told me it will get me many lovers, but that didn’t really happen that much, so…’, Stiles blushes and ducks his head.

‘There’s no such thing as magic’, Derek manages to say.

‘Of course not. There’s only science.’, Stiles grins. ‘But the mic is made out of pure silver and it was coated in different herbs that have different magics, according to the druids, so that makes it pretty special.’

‘Hmm.’, Derek hums.

Frustrated, he turns off the device and turns towards Stiles. ‘I have no idea what I’m doing anymore, so I’m just gonna go.’

Stiles pouts at that, but doesn’t say anything, so Derek continues.

‘I’ll give the readings to my team and see what we can come up with. We may need more data, though.’

‘Yes, of course’, Stiles grins. ‘Anytime, anything, really. Anything to help our favorite team of scientists.’

Derek smiles. ‘We’re the only team of scientist around here.’

‘Thus, our favorite.’

‘Look, uhm… Thanks for your help. You’ve been really… well. Lovely, as my team mates put it.’

‘Lovely? I’ve never been called lovely before.’, Stiles giggles, blushing.

‘People have been understanding towards us and we’re sure you’ve had quite the say in it. So, for that, thank you. It does make our job a bit easier.’

‘Neat’, Stiles says after a few beats.

Derek shakes his head and heads toward the door. ‘See you, Stiles.’

If he brushes the back of his hand on Stiles’ tattoos on the way out, there’s nobody there to see it. Except for the Sheriff’s Secret Police. But that doesn’t count.

-

It’s on the drive home that he realizes that Stiles isn’t a psycho, not at all. He hasn’t said one word to Derek about his infatuation with him and that counts as something, he thinks. He is a bit odd, but Derek finds that amusing. And exciting. And he does want to see Stiles again.

‘So?’, Isaac asks the moment he steps into the lab.

Derek sighs and looks down. ‘He has tentacle tattoos all over his arms. And a microphone he got from an British druid that is giving alarming amounts of radiations.’

‘Good. Give me the readings’, Lydia says and thankfully, they drop the subject of Stiles and get to work.

It’s hours later, and Stiles is beating himself on the radio over saying ‘neat’. Derek smiles.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a house that doesn't exist, a bottle of alcohol and a minotaur.

The next time Derek talks to Stiles, it’s a few days later and he’s standing with his team in front of a house that doesn’t exist. All the other houses around it are real, but this one isn’t.

His pack is arguing over whom to go in, but Derek knows he’ll be the one to do it. He’s not going to put them in more danger than they already are. So he just lets them talk. It’s been a long day, quite frustrating, trying to figure out how this house is possible. It isn’t.

Derek drank half a bottle of whisky before coming here. He can’t get drunk, he’s a werewolf, but he is a bit tipsy. He doesn’t realize he’s pulled out his phone and dialed Stiles until the man picks up.

‘Hey, Derek.’ His pack all stop speaking and turn to look at him with various expressions of shock. He ignores them.

‘Hi, Stiles. Am I interrupting anything?’

‘No, I have 30 minutes till I go on air.’

‘Okay then. Question. Is it a normal occurrence for Night Vale to have houses that don’t exist?’

‘No’, he answers after a few seconds of silence. ‘How is that possible?’

‘It’s not.’, Derek sighs. ‘Well, not in my world. I was just checking to see if you’ve heard of anything like it before.’

‘No, no I haven’t. Do you really see Night Vale as a different world?’, he asks, somewhat softly.

Derek stares blindly into the horizon, because he didn’t realize he said it like that. He hasn’t really thought about it from that perspective.

‘No’, he says, eventually. ‘I didn’t actually mean for it to sound like that. I… Clearly it’s not a different world, since I am here, but… I have no explanation for most of the things that are happening in this town. And I have seen, before, a lot of things that most people would think are impossible.’

Stiles is silent, and Derek realizes he’s said too much. That whisky affected him more than he thought.

‘Sorry, Stiles. I… I’m just very frustrated and angry because I hate it when I don’t understand things, and I’m a bit drunk right now. Which I know is highly unprofessional but I promise you it is not a normal occurrence on my part.’

Isaac makes some sort a noise, between a whine and a laugh and Derek just looks at him for a second. Then, he shrugs, feeling tired all of a sudden.

‘It’s alright, man.’, Stiles laughs. ’I get it. It’s frustrated to be surrounded by things you don’t understand. When I went to Europe, it took me a whole week of self pep-talks until I managed to go inside of a book store. You know we don’t have that here, the Council approved books are available online and we don’t really go inside the Library only if we really have to, because of the librarians. I mean, I can only think that it must be worse for you, because you rely on science.’

‘You’re a smart man.’, Derek says. ‘And it’s frustrating, because I’m a smart man too, and I don’t really understand what you’re saying half the time.’

Lydia slaps him. He looks up at her, shocked.

‘What was that?’, he hears Stiles ask.

‘Lydia slapped me’, he answers. ‘I didn’t even notice she was standing in front of me. I... I think I’m drunk and I’m saying things that I shouldn’t.’

‘Derek. Have you been drinking whisky, by any chance?’, Stiles chuckles.

‘Yes. Why?’

‘Well, when I went to Europe I was surprised to find that they made their whisky without opium.’

‘What?’, he manages to say, after a few beats.

‘In Night Vale, we make our whisky with opium.’, Stiles explains, slowly.

‘Jesus’, Derek wheezes. ‘I’m high? I’ve never been high in my life.’

At that point, Isaac looses it and starts laughing. Loudly. Lydia and Allison look concerned, but Derek’s laughing too.

‘Are you gonna be okay?’, Stiles asks.

‘Yeah, I… I was gonna go inside the house but now I think I’m gonna go take a nap. I’ll let the pups handle this one.’

‘You do not call us that in public’, Lydia shouts.

Derek smiles and puts a hand around her waist, bringing her close and resting his cheek on her stomach. ‘We’re not in public, it’s just Stiles.’

Lydia takes the phone away from him and Derek whines, but he can’t bring himself to take it back.

‘Hi, Stiles. Thank you for your help. I’m going to take Derek to his hotel room, because he’s high as a kite and it’s quite distressing to see him like this.’

‘I’m sorry’, Derek hears Stiles say. ‘I should’ve thought about warning him, I didn’t think…’

‘It’s fine, he’ll be okay after he gets some rest. I’m sure he’ll call you after he sobers up to apologize.’

‘There’s nothing to apologize for, ma’am.’

Lydia perks up at the term. ‘Thank you, Stiles. If you could mention the house on your show and alert people to stay away from it, we’d appreciate it.’

‘Yes, of course.’

‘No need to mention Derek’s adventures.’

‘I’d never do that to him.’, Stiles shrieks, incredulously, and it makes Derek grin.

It actually makes Lydia smile too. ‘Thank you, Stiles. Have a good day.’ She hangs up before Stiles gets to answer.

-

Derek wakes up in his hotel room, several hours later. His head hurts a bit, but it is manageable. He remembers his conversation with Stiles and groans, feeling his cheeks burning up. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees a piece of paper on the nightstand. It’s a note from Lydia.

  1. Don’t ever do that again.
  2. We have pictures. For blackmail.
  3. We’re at the lab, working, all night. Join us when you sober up.
  4. Call Stiles.
  5. CALL STILES.



Derek sighs, but he turns on the radio, to check if Stiles is on air. He just catches the ending of his show.

‘… of course we all need to loosen up from time to time. We all work too much. So, dear listeners, you should take some time for yourself. Take a long bath, take a nap in the middle of the day, cuddle on the couch with a loved one, take cooking classes. Do something for yourself, something that makes you happy. You deserve it. We all do. Good night, Night Vale. Good Night.’

The second the broadcasts ends, Derek’s phone signals a text from Lydia. _He didn’t mention your drug problem._

He sighs and calls Stiles.

‘Oh god, are you okay? How are you feeling? I was so worried.’

Derek blushes, so he lays back down into bed. ‘I’m fine, Stiles, thank you. And I am so sorry.’

‘No, don’t be. You didn’t do anything wrong. It was quite amusing, to be honest.’

‘Yeah’, Derek sighs. ‘Lydia assures me she has blackmail material.’

‘Well, that’s what girlfriends are for. Gathering blackmail material. Or so I’ve heard.’

Derek couldn’t stop himself from smiling at Stiles’ fake cheery tone. ‘Good thing she’s not my girlfriend, then.’, is what he says.

‘Oh? I thought…’

‘No. She is one of my best friends, though. Everyone in my team is.’

‘That’s nice. That you all came here together.’

‘Yeah…  So. I’m sorry, again. I don’t usually drink while I’m working, I promise.’

‘It’s fine, Derek, really. Please, stop apologizing. I get it, when I first started working, I couldn’t go on air without a shot of tequila beforehand.’

‘Why?’

‘I kept thinking I’d screw up. You know, badly. So I thought that if I did screw up, I could blame it on the alcohol afterwards.’

‘That’s weird’, is what Derek says, but he is smiling.

Stiles is silent for a few seconds. ‘I am weird’, he says then, almost whispering.

‘You’re more interesting than weird’, Derek answers, without even thinking about it.

‘You like mysteries, then?’

‘Of course, I’m a scientist. All mysteries have to be solved.’

Stiles laughs. ‘I have no answer to that. And that’s saying something, coming from me. But I do have to go now, Scott’s having a meltdown in his office. Gotta make sure my bro lives. See you, Derek.’

‘Good night, Stiles.’

Derek goes to the lab that night and laughs, alongside his pack, at pictures of him sleeping. Then, they work all night. They still don’t manage to find out why the house doesn’t exist.

-

Two days later, the pack decided to take a day off, the one after the full moon. The girls were shopping, and Derek and Isaac were watching Mythbusters reruns and eating pizza. That’s when Stiles calls Derek.

‘Stiles.’

‘Hey? Are you busy? Sorry for interrupting.’, he sounds a bit frantic.

‘What’s wrong?’

‘Nothing’s wrong. I hope. I just need a favor. And I know we’re not friends or anything and that I’m pushing and I don’t even need anything from you, I need Isaac.’

‘You need Isaac?’

‘Yeah, he’s a vet, right?’

Derek looks towards Isaac. He’s clearly hearing the conversation, and watching Derek with a raised eyebrow.

‘That he is.’

‘Khoshekh had babies!’, Stiles blurts out, excitedly.

‘The cat that’s levitating in the men’s bathroom at the radio station.’, Isaac explains.

‘Yes.’, Stiles says and Derek’s a bit thrown off guard by the fact that he heard. ‘And they seem fine, but I just want to make sure. Cause they’re the most adorable things you have ever seen in your life and they’re so fluffy and cute and I don’t even like cats but you just take a look at them and you can’t not love them. And normally I would just get Scott to look at them, or Deaton, but Scott’s out of town with his mom and Deaton’s on vacation in Canada, of all places. Why would anyone want to go to Canada? It’s cold and the people are too polite.’

‘Stiles, breathe.’, Derek interrupts him. ‘Are you at the station now? We could be there in 20 minutes.’

‘Yes, please. Thank you.’

‘Okay. See you soon.’

When they get to the station, Stiles is waiting for them outside, smoking. Derek and Isaac just stay in the car for a few seconds, looking at his outfit. He’s wearing a pair of pants, covered with bright blue sequins, red sneakers, and a simple, gray tank top.  The tattoos continue under the top and over his collar bone and he’s not wearing glasses. His hair is, as usual, a mess.

‘Is he for real?’, Isaac whispers.

‘I would assume so’, Derek says, and gets out of the car.

Stiles smiles when he sees them and starts bouncing up and down. ‘My knights in shining armor.’

‘We’re not the ones that are shining.’, Isaac mutters.

‘The weather’s gloomy today, I needed some sunlight.’, Stiles shrugs and grins.

‘Of course, sounds reasonable.’, Isaac rolls his eyes.

‘So. Cats?’, Derek asks, opening the door.

‘Yes, kittens!’, Stiles shrieks, walking inside the building. He brushes Derek’s hand with his fingers, but it’s done so absently, the wolf doesn’t dwell on it.

Stiles leads them into the men’s bathroom, which is quite big considering how few people seem to be working at the station. It’s painted in bright orange and deep purple and there is a big cat floating on top of one of the sinks. As soon as the wolves come into the room, Khoshekh starts meowing. Only it’s not your typical cat sound, it’s much more dark and resembling a growl.

Derek and Isaac both stop dead in their tracks. Cats normally don’t have a problem with werewolves, but it seems this one does.

‘That can’t be a cat’, Isaac whispers, low enough that only Derek hears it.

‘Smells like one’, he answers, just as low.

‘Awwwh’, Stiles coos, moving towards it. ‘Come on, Khoshekh, don’t be like that.’ He starts petting it behind the ears, and the cat stops growling.

‘There we go’, Stiles continues, sweetly. ‘These are Derek and Isaac, they’re my friends. They’re not here to hurt you, I promise. I just want them to take a look at your babies, Isaac’s a vet. Just to make sure they’re ok. You’d like that, right? To make sure your kittens are alright?’

The cat turns to look at Stiles and after a few seconds, bumps its nose into his. It’s adorable, and Derek’s heart skips a beat. But Isaac’s does too, so they just smile at each other.

‘The kittens are over here’, Stiles nods to Isaac, pointing to a box that’s standing on one of the sinks.

Isaac goes over to it and coos. Audibly. Derek sneaks a peek and sees three kittens, levitating, but staying inside the box. They’re small and fluffy and as soon as Isaac gets close to them, they start jumping and meowing. They sound normal, not like their father. As soon as that thought enters Derek’s head, _how can a male cat have kittens?_ , he pushes it out and decides to ignore it.

Isaac takes about half an hour to check the kittens, and somewhere along the way, Derek eased himself into sitting down on the floor, leaning against a wall. He ends up getting lost in the way Stiles waves his hands around, explaining things to Isaac, or the way he listens carefully and nods when the wolf gives him instructions about taking care of the cats. Stiles is a pretty good looking man. Derek would say he’s beautiful, but never out loud. Once you get past the quirky fashion sense and the bright colors, Stiles’ body looks firm. It’s clear that he works out, by the way the muscles on his arms and legs twitch when he moves.

Derek spends a lot of time looking at Stiles’ tattoos. They’re complicated and perfectly done. And because he’s wearing a tank top, Derek can now see that they continue onto his body, not much, but enough to keep Derek’s eyes glued to Stiles’ neck and collarbone. He doesn’t notice Khoshekh float over above his head, or when it sits on Derek’s shoulder.

Stiles turns around and beams at Derek. That’s when he realizes that Khoshekh is sitting with its bottom on his shoulder, and rubbing his head to Derek’s hair.

‘Oh my god, that’s adorable!’, Stiles shrieks and quickly takes a seat on the floor in front of Derek, smiling and beaming. ‘Why is it doing that, though?’

‘I have no idea’, Derek admits, trying to not stare at Stiles. Now, when he’s close, he sees Stiles’ eyes, and realizes he could get lost in them. It’s a cheesy line, one he’s heard a lot of times before, but Stiles’ eyes are so worm and full of adoration, in makes Derek’s breath catch.

‘You know’, Stiles smiles, looking only at the cat, not at all at Derek, ‘that looks like weird scent marking. It’s unusual, but I’ve seen some wolves do it like this. It’s like Khoshekh’s rubbing his scent all over you.’

Derek stays silent, because he’s afraid he’d say something stupid, like the fact that this is a common ordeal for werewolves.

‘Why would Khoshekh do that?’, Isaac asks, clearly thinking the same line of thought as Derek.

‘I don’t know’, Stiles frowns, finally looking at Derek. ‘Maybe he likes you.’

Derek hums and cautiously, puts his hand on the back of Khoshekh’s neck. When it doesn’t protest, he starts petting him. The cat stops nuzzling in his hair, then, and just rests his head on top of Derek’s. Next thing he knows, there’s the distinct sound of a phone taking a picture. When he turns around, Stiles’ is frowning at his phone.

‘There’s lens flare’.

‘Oops’, Derek thinks. What he says is ‘Try again’.

Stiles does try again, and Derek makes sure to close his eyes right when he takes the picture. It’s worth it, for the delighted sound Stiles makes.

‘We should get going.’, Isaac says, and Derek sits up, carefully handling the cat.

‘Okay’, Stiles pouts, but he gets up too. Then, Isaac’s eyes glint and Derek has a second to be frightened, before Isaac starts talking.

‘Hey, Stiles, man. Are there any decent bars around? We have the day off and we’ve been here for weeks but never went to a bar.’

‘Oh, uhm. Hm. Well, Scott and I always go to Shelly’s. It’s a 5 minute walk from here, towards the City Hall. It’s the best in town, I think. Fairly big, cheap, great food, too.’

‘Cool, cool. We should go’, Isaac winks at Derek.

‘Sure.’, he says.

‘You free?’, Isaac grins at Stiles, who visibly startles.

‘Yeah… Yes, sure. I’m done for today.’

‘Good, you’re coming with us, then. Derek, you should call the girls, see if they’re done with their shopping.’

‘Sure’, Derek sighs and he knows he’s blushing, he knows that Isaac’s doing this for him. But he manages to smile at Stiles. ‘You should ask Scott, too. Or anybody else, if you want.’

‘Awh man.’, Stiles whines. ‘Scott’s out of town for the week and I’m all alone here and I miss the hell out of him and it’s only been 2 days.’

‘Who’s Scott?’, Isaac asks, while he’s gathering his stuff.

‘He’s my brother from another mother. We’re heterosexual life partners and completely dependent on each other. He’s also a vet in training and my intern from time to time.’

‘You could call someone else’, Derek says as softly as he can manage.

‘Neah, there’s nobody else. God damn, that sounds so sad. It’s not, though, I swear it’s not.’

‘But you’re The Voice.’, Isaac grins. ‘I’m sure you have a lot of friends.’

‘No, they’re mostly groupies’, Stiles rolls his eyes. After a beat, he continues. ‘God, that was horrible. I’m sorry. I know a lot of people, yes, because of my job. But nobody’s as close as Scott and I.’

‘We get it’, Derek smiles. ‘Do you think we would have come here for an undetermined amount of time if we had a lot of friends to leave behind in New York?’

Stiles smiles. His eyes glint a bit and Derek realizes he should really stop staring at them.

‘We’re a bunch of lone wolves, aren’t we?’

Derek and Isaac laugh at that, maybe a bit more than they should.

-

They get to the bar, and Derek actually likes it. It has a typical small town diner vibe to it, everything’s made out of wood, but it also has a large dancing area. The music’s nice and not too loud and they manage to find a booth quickly.

Everybody treats Stiles like a celebrity. They smile and wave and some of them even hug him. Derek thinks maybe it wasn’t a good idea for them to be seen together, considering the way Stiles talks about him on the radio. But he does relax a bit when Isaac sits next to him in the booth, and Stiles sits on the opposite side.

The girls enter the bar just after they order their drinks. Allison heads towards the bathroom, and when Lydia gets to their table, she starts talking instantly, taking a seat next to Stiles.

‘I don’t know how I am going to survive in this town. The mall is decently sized, I guess, and we did manage to find some cute things, but it does not have any of the brands we’re used to. None. No Starbucks, no Macy’s, no Sephora, no Nordstrom, no Apple, no nothing.’

‘Jesus Christ, you’re gorgeous’, Stiles whispers, voice filled with awe, staring at her hair.

Lydia turns to him slowly, one eyebrow raised. ‘I know.’

‘I’m gay’, Stiles says after a beat. ‘Oh god, I’m sorry, my brain to mouth filter stops working from time to time. But you really are gorgeous and beautiful and I am so sorry for sounding like a creep, but as much as I am gay, I am perfectly capable of appreciating the opposite sex. Of which you are a fine example of.’, he says in a rush, blushing and sinking in on himself.

Lydia regards him for a few seconds. Then, she just laughs. ‘I like you, Stiles.’

‘Oh thank god’, he says, clutching his chest. ‘Cause I have a feeling you would have crushed me if you haven’t.’

‘Pretty much’, Allison says, coming to the booth and sitting next to Isaac. ‘Hi, Stiles, I’m Allison. Nice to finally meet you.’

‘The feeling is mutual, m’lady.’, Stiles smiles.

‘Now, now.’, Isaac frowns, putting his hand over Allison’s shoulder. ‘You should stop spoiling our team mates, they’ll get used to it and expect Derek and I to do the same.’

‘Well you should’, Stiles frowns. ‘You should cherish every smart, lovely lady that agrees to willingly spend time with you.’

‘Oh, I definitely like you’, Lydia grins.

Derek takes a sip of his beer and tries to ignore how Lydia’s looking at him with an evil glint in her eyes.

-

Of course Stiles fits right in. He shows the girls the picture of Derek with the cat, they laugh and joke around, and Stiles spends half the time talking either about Scott or about his father.

By the end of the evening, Derek feels like he’s in love. Which is a very odd feeling, he thinks, considering that after the apocalypse that was Andrew, he swore to himself he’ll never fall in love again.

But he can’t help it. It's... Stiles.

-

One week later, Isaac runs into the lab, terrified, way too early in the morning. But Derek and Lydia were still there, because they didn’t leave the night before, and Allison came at about 4am, saying she wasn’t able to sleep. Isaac tells Derek that he was doing his daily morning jog, when something came running out of the dog park.

‘It was 7 feet tall, and had a lot of muscles and speed. His body was normal, of a man, but his head… It was a bull.’, Isaac explained, while catching his breath.

‘A minotaur.’, Derek says. ‘You saw a minotaur. Are you sure?’

‘Yes! What’s a minotaur?’

‘It’s a Greek myth’, Lydia explains. ‘Part man, part bull, trapped in the Labyrinth in Creta.’

‘It’s a myth, in books’, Derek says, looking worriedly at Isaac. ‘Are you sure that’s what you saw? Maybe you… hallucinated?’

‘I did not hallucinate.’, Isaac scoffs.

‘Had any whiskey yesterday?’, Allison asks as softly as she can, gently rubbing Isaac’ forehead with a washcloth. He stops her by grabbing her wrist. He looks at Derek and speaks confidently.

‘I know what I saw. It’s a minotaur and it’s big and ugly, and it will scare the living shit out of the population. I don’t know how it exists, where it came from or why it’s here, but we can’t risk him hurting anybody. I can’t fight it alone, but we could take him down, Derek.’

When Derek didn’t say anything, Isaac rolled his eyes and hit him lightly in the chest. ‘Come on, man! There are so many things you can’t explain in this fucking town, but you draw the line at a minotaur, a mythical creature with fangs and blood thirst? Does that sound familiar?’

‘Ok. You’re right. Let’s go.’, he nods and takes off his lab jacket, replacing it with his leather one.

‘We’re going too’, Allison says, bow already in hand.

‘Of course we’re going’, Lydia rolls her eyes, securing a gun in the back of her pants.

‘The day is starting.’, Derek tells Isaac while they leave the lab. ‘We have to be careful, we don’t need the people of Night Vale knowing werewolves exist.’

‘Got it. No claws or fangs or eyes if in public. But it’s okay for people to see the girls armed, right?’, he smiled.

‘Not our fault they can take care of themselves.’

This was an reccurring joke between the two of them. When things like this happened to the pack, the people involved that didn’t know about them would have a hard time believing that Allison and Lydia were the ones carrying lethal weapons. The Police hardly ever believed them when Isaac and Derek told them they were just fighting. In the end, the Police and, on several occasions when the FBI was involved, other authorities always believed that Allison and Lydia were the heroes who saved the day. Sometimes, they were right, but most of the times, it was teamwork, a good balance between claws and superhuman strength, and guns, bows and high heels. But it never stopped being hilarious.

When they got to the dog park, Derek immediately caught the scent of the minotaur, stale and rancid, like rust and mold. They don’t have to track it long, and when they found it in the back parking lot of the pharmacy, the girls were hot on their heels.

They all hesitate, Derek and Isaac don’t attack, and the girls don’t fire their weapons, because the beast is just standing there. It’s head is really ugly, with red fur, and the horns are huge and black, but the rest of the body is completely human. He’s not wearing a shirt, but he does have a pair of black jeans on, and boots. His hands are in the pockets of the jeans and he’s looking around, at the building, rather than at them. The minotaur does not seem threatening at all.

When his eyes land on Derek and his pack, he waves at them. Actually waves, and tilts his head to the side. But when Derek takes a step forward, the minotaur starts running the other way.

They follow it through town for about 20 minutes, and Derek’s happy that it’s early enough in the morning and the streets are pretty much empty. He feels his phone ringing in his pocket, but he ignores it most of the time. Isaac wants to attack the minotaur, but Derek holds him back, arguing that he hasn’t done anything wrong. When they got close to the dog park, the minotaur sped up. While Isaac and Derek were still able to keep up with it, the girls quickly fell behind.

Derek didn’t even second guess it, when the minotaur ran straight into the dog park, he followed it. It’s only when he reached a clearing behind the first row of trees that he realized that he was in a desert, and these trees should not grow here and that he was in the dog park, and the park was a dangerous place.

Hence, the 12 hooded figures that stood in a half-circle right in front of Derek. He stopped dead in his tracks and instinctually raised his hands in a submissive manner. The minotaur stopped too, it was standing in the middle of the hooded figures, back to them, looking straight at Derek.

One of the hooded figures, the one in the far right, raised a hand from under its cloak. It was just the skeleton of a hand, but it was wearing a big silver ring. It did some sort of complicated hand movement and then, the minotaur was absorbed by a bright purple light. When it was gone, it wasn’t big anymore, it couldn’t have been more than 1 foot tall.

Derek blinked at it. It smelled the same, and its heartbeat was beating in the same pattern as before. He closed his eyes for a brief second and realized that the hooded figures did not have a heartbeat, or a scent.

The figure in the right moved towards Derek and he adopted a defensive stance, drawing his claws. But it didn’t attack. It took his hood off, and Derek saw his own face. He would have freaked out, if he hadn’t realized that the face didn’t look normal, it looked like it was made out of plastic.

‘The Greeks are harmless’, it said in Derek’s voice. ‘Don’t worry, wolf. You may leave.’

It smiled and it was the creepiest thing Derek saw in his life. He didn’t need to be told twice. He headed back towards the exit of the park, but he didn’t turn his back, not until he was outside in the town again, with his pack fussing over him.

He calmly told them what happened, and after everybody has calmed down, Derek realized his phone was still vibrating in his pocket. He drew it out, and saw 25 missed calls, all from Stiles, and a text.

 _Just let me know you’re alive, please_ , was all it said.

Of course, his phone died after he read it. ‘I forgot to charge it last night’, he mumbled.

‘Go.’, Allison said in a soft voice. ‘We’re 5 minutes from the station. Let him know you’re okay.’

Derek nodded and started jogging towards the radio station. He heard Stiles inside, pacing in the chilling room and he was mumbling.

‘… stupid, stupid Derek. Why would you shut your phone? You could’ve just told me you’re not in the mood for my face, but noooo, you just shut your fucking phone and here I am, worrying like a fucking idiot. Stupid Derek and his stupid face! Stupid genius scientist…’

‘Stiles?’

He turned toward Derek with his jaw dropped and his eyes wide. Stiles was wearing a pair of black gym pants and a red plaid shirt. His hair was messier than normal, and he wasn’t wearing his glasses. Derek smiled and took a few steps closer.

‘I’m sorry, my phone died. I would have called earlier but-‘

Derek was cut out by a handful of Stiles. He just jumped on him, hands going around Derek’s neck, burying his nose into the wolf’s neck. But before he got a chance to respond, Stiles was already backing away.

‘I am so sorry, I just… when you…’, Stiles sighed, running a hand through his hair. ‘I’m just really glad you’re okay.’

‘Yeah’, Derek smiled. ‘I’m okay, we all are. How did you… how did you know something was going on?’

Stiles shrugged and sat down on one of the couches, gesturing for Derek to do the same. ‘I’m kind of the first to find out about everything even remotely interesting that happens in this town. After the Sheriff’s Secret Police, of course. So when old woman Josie saw the whole science team running after a minotaur, of all things, of course she called me.’

‘Yeah, we uh… It was a minotaur. Which is a Greek myth, so it shouldn’t have existed.’, Derek says, frustrated.

‘What happened?’, Stiles asks, putting a comforting hand on Derek’s shoulder, and squeezing it a bit.

‘We followed it to the dog park. I was the only one able to get in.’

‘You went in the dog park?’, Stiles yelled. ‘You could have died, oh my god, Derek! What were you thinking?’

‘I wasn’t thinking. But I’m still here, I’m fine.’, he assured Stiles, taking hold of his wrist until the man stopped moving. Then, he let go and shrugged. ‘I saw 12 hooded figures. They, for lack of a better word, shrunk the minotaur. Then one of them, who was wearing a plastic mask of my face, told me that the Greeks are harmless and that I’m free to go. I ran out of there after that.’

‘What does that mean? The Greeks are harmless?’, Stiles frowns.

‘I have no fucking idea.’

‘I’m sure you’ll figure it out, eventually.’, Stiles smiles. ‘I’m just really glad you’re okay. I’m sure we all are.’

‘Thank you’, Derek smiles back and gets up from the couch. ‘I should go back to the lab, see if we can make any sense of this.’

‘Okay.’, Stiles nods.

‘How long till you go on air?’

‘3 hours.’

‘I wish I could tell you something concrete, to tell your audience, but I don’t know anything more.’

‘It’s fine, don’t even think about that. Thank you for everything you’re doing.’, Stiles sounds so convinced. ‘We know you’re trying your best and we appreciate it. Just… please, don’t go into the dog park again. It’s dangerous.’

‘Noted.’, Derek smiled and got out of there, the sight of Stiles’ smile and his deep amber eyes following him to the lab.

Hours later, Stiles praises Derek in his show. He tells his listeners about how brave he is and how thankful everybody in Night Vale should be for having such good people working together, keeping them safe. Then, he says that The City Council has announced that there is an infestation of small Greek mythology creatures all over the town, but that they are harmless and they should be ignored and left to be.

Derek groans and goes back to work.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Someone requested I'd include some Greek myths into this. Hence, the minotaur. But I lost the username, so sorry I can't credit. Thanks again, though, for the lovely idea :).


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a thunderstorm, some revelations and an injury.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> (*) I shamelessly copied this scene from [this](http://tinyfics.tumblr.com/post/61225548181) post, because let me tell you how I cry every time I see it.

A week later, the next big things happens, in the shape of a huge thunderstorm. It started one morning, right on top of the local hospital. Over the next two days, it extended to the surrounding area, and four days later, it was covering a three block radius.

The whole town was in chaos. Night Vale was in the middle of the desert, nobody was used to thunderstorms of this magnitude here. Houses were flooded, a lot of accidents happened, the drivers being caught by surprise on the flooded streets. A few people were struck by lightning, and although they survived, they were in a lot of pain.

The storm lasted for 6 days. When it finally stopped, the hospital looked like a warzone, having accounted 207 casualties. Thankfully, no deaths.

Derek and his pack spent the week at the hospital, helping however they could. They all had medical training, and the doctors were thankful for their presence. They filled out charts, did shots, cleaned and sutured wounds. They talked to the patients and to their families. When needed, Derek and Isaac helped the paramedics and fire department pull people out of car wreckages. They also made sure to take as much pain as they could from the more traumatized patients. Lydia scrubbed in on three surgeries, because she actually went to medical school before choosing genetics as her desired field.

When the hospital didn’t need their help anymore, they were all exhausted. Derek thought he managed to get 20 hours of sleep in the last week. So when Stiles called him, asking to stop by the radio, he was about to say no. But then, he remembered seeing Stiles at the hospital this past week. He didn’t stay long when he came, but he always brought a lot of pizza boxes from Big Rico’s, and made sure Derek and his team always got at least a cupcake and a hot cup of coffee. He’d talk to family members, kept them busy for a while and brought up their morale. Derek will never forget when, on day 3, Stiles came into the hospital, hugging a kid closely to his chest. The boy couldn’t have been more than four years old, and he was crying and clinging to Stiles’ shirt. One of the nurses came to him and Stiles smiled at her.

‘Hey, Melissa. I’m so glad you’re here because this is Andy. He’s a hero and we need your help.’

‘What happened?’, the nursed asked gently, putting one hand on the boy’s forehead and the other one on top of Stiles’, squeezing gently.

‘Andy here was with his daddy, coming home from the playground. The car got caught up in the storm and his father lost control and drove into a building. I was just passing by, and I saw Andy helping his daddy out of the car, like a true hero. Very brave, this one right here. And very strong, he got his dad out of the car all by himself.’, Stiles winked at the nurse and she nodded. ‘I had to stay with Andy till the ambulance got there, because this brave fellow would not leave his father’s side, even though he was bleeding. _It doesn’t hurt_ , Andy told me, and of course I believed him, he wouldn’t lie to me.’

‘Where is his father now?’, the nurse asked softly, still holding on to Stiles’ hand.

‘The ambulance was right behind us. They’ll be here soon, the paramedics said that Andy’s dad only has a broken leg and a dislocated shoulder. I just thought we’d come here faster, so someone could check on Andy’s hand and leg, that are just bleeding, they don’t hurt at all, and he’d be able to see his dad when he comes in.’

‘Ok.’, the nurse smiled softly, putting a loose curl of her brown hair behind her ear. ‘Andy, sweetie, do you want to come with me? I just need to clean your wounds and put some band aids on them. I’ll be quick, I promise. You’ll see your daddy in no time.’

‘I don’t wanna’, Andy said, holding onto Stiles a little bit harder, sniffing into his shirt.

‘Hey, Andy, let me tell you a secret.’, Stiles smiled down at the boy. ‘Melissa here, she’s the best nurse in this whole hospital. I know that, because I grew up with her and I used to spend a lot of time here as a kid, I’d always fall on my face for no reason at all. And Melissa, she has magic hands. She loves all her patients, and she would never do anything to hurt them. And because she loves people so much, it never hurts when she makes them better, I promise. Also, if you’re brave enough, and let her do her job, she’ll give you a lollipop when she’s done.’

‘You wouldn’t want your daddy to see you hurt like this when he gets here, would you? You don't want to get him worried, right?’, the nurse smiled, kissing the boy’s forehead. 'Come on, we won’t go far. You’ll see your dad when he comes in.’

‘Okay’, the boy sniffed after a beat, kissing Stiles’ cheek and thanking him, before grabbing onto the nurse’ hand.

‘Thanks, Melissa. I’ll cook you dinner when this is all over.’

‘That you are. How’s your dad?’

‘He’s okay. Working long hours and not sleeping at home at all, but he’s safe up there.’

‘You be safe too, sweetie? Okay? Take care, please.’, she kissed Stiles’ forehead in a very motherly fashion, while he chuckled and blushed.

‘You too, not-mom. Now go do your job.’

So no, Derek couldn’t say no to Stiles, not after remembering that. The pack followed him to the radio station, of course they did. When they got there, Stiles looked as bad as everyone else. He was wearing a pair of loose jeans and a gray t-shirt. His hair looked very tangled and there were dark bags under his eyes. Still, he smiled when he saw them.

But before they could say anything, another man came out from the recording booth. He was wearing black pants and a checkered shirt that fitted his muscles. He looked tired too, but in a better shape than Stiles. Derek knew he was Allison’s type, without even hearing her sharp intake of breath. He looked manly, like she likes them, but his eyes were soft and caring.

‘Hey, Stiles, where…’, he stopped with his eyes wide and looked straight at Derek, taking a really not inconspicuous sniff. Then, he dropped the files he was holding and flexed his fists in front of his body, lifting his chin.

‘Um…’, Stiles frowned.

The moment the guy’s scent hit Derek’s nose, he took a step to the right, standing in front of Allison and Lydia, and Isaac did the same. Their eyes flashed, bright red and gold, and Isaac growled, low in his chest, flexing his fingers till his claws came out.

Then, the guy flashed his eyes. They were red.

‘Oh god.’, Derek absently heard Lydia whisper.

‘Shit!’, Stiles yelled, putting himself between Derek and the guy. ‘Calm down, everybody just calm the fuck down.’

Isaac growled even harder. The guy behind Stiles started doing it too, but he didn’t move to attack.

‘This is Scott!’, Stiles yelled, turning towards Derek. ‘Scott, the Scott, my Scott, my brother from another mother Scott! You’ve heard me ramble about him enough to know he’s harmless.’

‘He’s a werewolf’, Lydia pointed out, unnecessary, earning a glare from Stiles.

‘No shit, Lydia. I didn’t figure that out, thank you for enlightening me.’ Then, he turned towards Scott.

‘Dude, this is Derek. And Isaac, and Lydia and Allison. Hold your horses! Back down.’

‘I’ll back down as soon as the curly one stops doing that!’, he answers, angrily.

Derek takes a deep breath, and puts a hand around Isaac’s neck. It takes a few seconds, but his beta does calms down.

‘So this is a plot twist’, Stiles chuckles nervously.

‘Did you know he’s a werewolf?’, Scott asks him, concern written all over his face.

‘No. And they didn’t know you’re a werewolf either. Clearly.’

‘Stiles, just fyi’, Lydia waves a finger in his direction. ‘From my experience, it’s not a good thing to step in the middle of a wolf pissing context.’

That earns her a glare from both Stiles and Derek. Then, he takes a deep breath and looks at Scott, saying the only thing he can think of, one of the first things he’s ever remembered his parents teaching him.

‘I apologize, Alpha. Had I known this territory was occupied, I would have asked for your permission before coming here.’

Scott’s eyes grow wide and his jaw drops a little. Stiles blinks and elbows him in the stomach. Then he whispers, even though they can all still hear him. ‘Werewolf territory protocols. We’ve been over this.’

‘Uh…’, Scott frowns. ‘That’s alright, Alpha Hale. You’re welcomed here?’, it comes out as a question that’s being directed towards Stiles.

‘That’s right, buddy.’, he nods.

Lydia snorts. ‘Amateurs.’

‘Hey, don’t get rude!’, Stiles scoffs while putting an arm around Scott’s shoulders. ‘We’re doing the best we can with limited resources.’

‘How limited?’, Lydia asks after a beat.

Scott sighs. ‘It’s a long story. Which we will gladly tell you, but maybe now is not a good time?’, he looks towards Derek, asking for confirmation.

‘If we go to the hotel, will you try and kill us in our sleep?’, he asks, as straight forward as he can manage, rubbing a hand on his forehead. 

‘Jesus Christ’, Stiles hisses while Scott just looks at him.

‘No’, is what he says after a few seconds. ‘Will you?’

‘No, we’re too tired for bloodshed today.’, Derek deadpans.

‘Plus, we don’t know where you live.’, Isaac adds.

When Stiles and Scott just stare at them, Allison waves her hands around to catch their attention. ‘They were joking, god. We’re not going to hurt you, promise. We’re just all very very very tired.’

‘Right’, Stiles nods. ‘How about this? We all go home and get some much deserved rest. And tomorrow night, you all come round to my house, maybe bring some pizza and beers and we’ll have a nice, long, peaceful chat?’, he smiles, hopefully, bouncing on the soul of his feet.

‘Perfect’, Scott grins and Derek hears Allison’s sharp intake of breath.

‘Sure’, he sighs.

‘Great’, Lydia claps her palms. ‘Text Derek the address. Now, let’s sleep because I’m going to pass out it about 20 minutes.’

-

Derek sleeps for 23 hours. He wakes up with a headache, a killing urge to pee and hungry like never before. He gathers that his packmates are in similar conditions. But Stiles texted him 3 hours ago:  _The house near the radio station. You know, the only red one there? Come whenever, Scott’s already here. Bring pizza, we got the beer._

They did as they were told. The radio station was at the edge of town, surrounded by apartment buildings. But Stiles lived in the only house in the area, right next to the station. It was two stories tall, but it didn’t look very big. It was, however, painted bright red. There was a swing set in the garden and a bigger rocker on the porch.

Derek looked around at his pack. Isaac was weary, dressed as usual and acting normal, but he was fidgeting. He always got like this when he met new wolves, and Derek understood it. The girls, on the other hand, that was a different story. Lydia was very excited to see Stiles’ house, as she kept saying. Derek new that was a lie, she was just excited to see him interact with Stiles. He chose to ignore it. She was wearing heels and a flowery dress, but it wasn’t anything fancier than usual. But Allison was also wearing a dress and heels, and that wasn’t a normal occurrence. She was also wearing a bright pink lipstick and that screamed _by Lydia_.

Isaac nudged his elbow and pointed at Allison, wiggling his eyebrows. Derek rolled his eyes and shrugged, what else could he do? He may not approve of Allison’s attraction towards Scott, but he couldn’t judge, not with the attraction he had towards Stiles.

The door opened before they got to knock on it, revealing a very excited Scott, who grabbed the pizza boxes right out of Isaac’s hands, walking back inside the house.

‘Scott!’, Stiles groaned from a few feet inside the house. ‘If your mom knew you deleted manners again, she’d whip your ass so hard, it’d hurt till Monday, werewolf healing and all!’ He was wearing a pair of black jeans and a red v-neck, long sleeved shirt that covered most of his tattoos. No glasses, his hair was still damp from a shower, and he had a fluffy pair of pink socks on.

‘But I’m hungry!’, Scott groans around a mouthful.

Derek and Isaac shared a look.

‘That’s your Alpha?’, Isaac asks Stiles, full of sarcasm.

‘There’s more to him than meets the eyes. Promise.’, he answers, nodding.

‘Mind if we come in to figure that out, or did we just deliver pizza?’, Lydia smiles sweetly.

‘Come in, of course, make yourselves right at home’, Stiles makes a complicated hand gesture and they all go inside.

Stiles’ ground floor is just one big space. There a staircase towards the second floor , and a kitchen in a corner, with a bar instead of a table, but it doesn’t look like it’s used very often. The rest of the space, though, is highly inhabited. Everything is made out of dark wood, and there is an orange couch on a wall, and another one near it, with a coffee table between them and some chairs. But all the other walls are covered in bookshelves, top to bottom, packed with books and pictures and different knick-knacks. Superhero figurines, wolf plushies, brain teaser games, sports trophees, other figurines and souvenirs.  On the wall above the couch, which is painted a vibrant purple, there are 12 different framed sketches, all done in black and purple charcoal, sketches of people dancing with wolves. They’re beautiful and they look oddly familiar to Derek, but he can't really place them. Over all, the room looks warm and it’s made from a whole blend of things that are just so very Stiles.

‘Do you own _all_ the books that are approved?’, Lydia asks, eyes scanning the bookshelves.

‘No’, Stiles scoffs. ‘Just the ones that were approved after I turned 15. Well, there’s some from before, I got them when I left Dad’s house, but not that many.’

‘Stiles’, Lydia purrs, making everyone in their pack roll their eyes, ‘I didn’t know you’re smart.’

‘There’s a lot of things you don’t know about me.’, Stiles narrows his eyes, absently handing Derek a bottle of beer. ‘But you do know I’m gay, so stand down, sweetie!’

Lydia snorts. Derek always hated small talk, so he sits down on a chair in front of Scott and stares him down.

‘Born or bitten?’

Scott blinks. ‘Bitten.’

‘You killed your Alpha.’

‘Yeah.’

‘In all fairness’, Stiles says taking a seat next to Scott, ‘I kind of almost killed him before Scott did.’

When Derek doesn’t say anything, Stiles elbows Scott. ‘Come on, Scott. It’s your story and they should hear you tell it. They’re nice werewolves.’

‘Right, yeah. Okay.’, he takes a deep breath and looks at his hands while he talks. ‘Four years ago, I was walking towards Stiles’ house one night, and someone bit me. He was an Alpha but he was… he wasn’t right, he was feral, but he was … he was still conscious of his actions and he was smart.’

Scott has a haunted look while he talks, it breaks Derek’s heart.

‘He fucked with me for months, because I didn’t want to join his pack. He hurt me over and over and over again, and I couldn’t do anything to escape his hold. And all that time, he kept killing people. Not turning them, but torturing and killing them. For the fun of it. And I couldn’t stop him. Then, he got hold of Stiles’, he sighs and looks to his best friends. Stiles moves closer to Scott then, and puts a comforting hand on his knee.

‘He tortured Stiles for 9 days. Physically and mentally. And when I managed to find them…’, Scott breaks off, staring down at his hands, where they’re folded in his lap.

Stiles continues, putting his hand over Scott’s. ‘I was almost dead when Scott found me, dehydrated and starving, but… somehow, I managed to stick an empty pipe through the Alpha's stomach. Three seconds later, Scott slashed his throat.‘

It’s Isaac who manages to say something. ‘That’s not how an Alpha leads his pack. Nobody gets bitten without consent.’

Scott looks up at that. ‘Really?’

‘Yes’, Derek nods. ‘It’s the first thing I was ever thought. The bite is a gift, but if you’re human, you have to want it.’

‘You didn’t have an Alpha to guide you’, Allison realizes.

‘No. All I had was Stiles and his researching abilities.’

‘So, not much.’, Isaac smirks, lightening the mood.

‘Hey!’, Scott puffs before Stiles gets a chance to respond. ‘Stiles figured out I was a werewolf before I did!’

‘That’s not possible’, Derek narrows his eyes.

Stiles just smirks.

‘It got better, after… after we killed him’, Scott continues. ‘Stiles helped me figure out my anchor, gain full control. He trained me and it was better, I was better.’

‘Does anybody else knows about the existence of werewolves?’, Lydia asks.

‘No’, Scott shakes his head. ‘Well, there was a thing with a zombie at the hospital, and my mom saw me wolfed out, so she knows.’

‘Melissa McCall’, Stiles explains. ‘She’s a nurse. You know her from the storm.’

‘Your not-mom.’, Derek realizes.

‘That’s the one.’

‘And when things got tricky’, Scott pulls a face, ‘trickier... When there were way too many lies and things got way out of our control, we told Stiles’ dad. And he helped us a lot, and not just by covering things up and making things plausible in the official reports.’

‘Your father’s a cop?’, Derek asks, remembering what Stiles told him before.

‘He’s the Sheriff.’, Stiles shrugs.

‘The…’, Isaac blinks. ‘The Sheriff, as in The Sheriff’s Secret Police?’

‘Yup.’

‘The ones who have their headquarters on a ship that’s invisible and somewhere above Night Vale, levitating in thin air.’

‘Aha.’

‘The ones who had cameras installed into every room of every home and that watch our every move?’

‘It’s not exactly like that’, Stiles grimaces. ‘Yes, they have people who look at some of the footage, but they erase their memories at the end of the day, so they don’t remember. Most of the task is done by computers, searching the audio for key words or screams, and -’

‘So your father knows we’re werewolves.’, Derek interrupts. ‘We haven’t really been careful when talking about it. I think we even flashed our eyes a couple of times.’

‘No, he doesn’t know’, Stiles shakes his head. ‘The Police have a really strict list of things that have to be reported. The existence of mythical creatures isn’t on the list, I assure you. Nor are words like _werewolf, claws, fangs_ and so on.’

‘How did you become an Alpha?’, Scott asks Derek, surprising everyone.

‘I grew up in a family of werewolves. When they died, the Alpha power transferred to my older sister, Laura. We were the only ones left. Four years ago, a hunter killed her, so the power transferred to me.’

‘So you were born a wolf? How does that work?’

Stiles’ excitement makes Derek smile. ‘Yes, I was born a werewolf. Not all children born out of werewolf parents are wolves. It’s just like a gene, the kids may get it, or they may not.’

‘And the Alpha powers?’

‘In packs, they get transferred. When an Alpha is old, he can willingly transfer the power to the one next in line. Most of the time, the young betas train with the Alpha, and they know who will be the next one. If the old one dies, the power transfers to the one in the pack who is the most suitable. Our parents always knew Laura would be the next Alpha, so the power transferred to her. Or, a beta can take an Alpha’s powers by killing him. Like you did.’

‘That is absolutely fascinating.’, Stiles says, voice filled with awe. ‘I am going to have a lot of questions, in the future, and I will never apologize for it.’

Derek smiles. ‘Sure. Ask away. Maybe I’ll even answer you.’

‘You didn’t bite anyone?’, Isaac asks.

‘No. Why would I?’, Scott frowns.

‘It’s easier in packs’, Isaac says, easily. ‘And Derek told me the instinct of an Alpha is to have a pack by his side.’

‘That may be’, Scott smiled. ‘But I didn’t feel like I needed anyone else. Stiles has always been more than enough. Maybe it’s different cause I’m bitten.’, he shrugged.

‘Maybe’, Derek agrees, but he doesn’t believe it. He thinks Stiles will always be enough for Scott, no matter the circumstance.

‘What about you guys?’, Scott asks, gesturing towards the rest of the pack. ‘What’s your stories?’

Isaac is the first one to answer. ‘I knew Derek since gradeschool, figured out he was a werewolf in the first year of highschool, when he saved me from a wendigo. It’s only after Laura died, when I asked for the bite.’

Scott’s jaw drops. ‘You asked for the bite… Why would you do that?’

‘Scott’, Stiles starts. ‘We’ve talked about this. It’s a superpower, not a curse.’

‘That’s what Derek’s mom used to say, the bite is a gift’, Isaac smiles. ‘And you would have done the same if you were in my position.’

‘What position?’, Scott frowns.

Isaac looks at Derek for a split second, a question in his eyes. Derek nods, there’s no point in hiding from Scott and Stiles.

‘After my brother died in combat and my mother left', Isaac starts, 'I lived with my father. He used to lock me up in a freezer every time I got a bad grade or… anything, really. After I found out about the Hales, I told Derek, who told his mom, who told the cops, who got me out of that house. I lived with Derek and his family, and after the fire, uhm… after they died, I stayed with him and Laura. 3 and a half years ago, my dad found me and shot 15 bullets into my stomach. I would have died if it wasn’t for Derek and werewolf healing.’

When Scott and Stiles don’t say anything, Lydia continues. ‘I met Derek and Isaac in New York, a long time after I learned how to be completely alone. Together, we figured out I’m a banshee.’

‘Banshee’, Stiles whisperes in awe.

‘Yes. Banshee. The wailing woman, the-‘

‘Banshee’, Stiles shrieks, loudly, getting up and running to one of the bookcases, pulling out what looks like a bestiary. Lydia stands up too, walks to him and closes the book. She smiles.

‘Questions later, Stiles. We’re socializing now.’

‘Right, yeah.’, he nods and reluctantly, goes back on the couch, but brings the book with him, putting it on the coffee table.

‘What about you?’, Scott smiles at Allison.

‘My aunt’s the one who burned Derek’s family.’, she answeres in a straight, unattached tone.

Scott and Stiles have similar expression of shock on their faces. Isaac actually giggles at them.

‘I come from a long line of werewolf hunters’, Allison continues. ‘If it wasn’t for Derek, Isaac and Lydia, I wouldn’t have figured out that what I was doing, hunting werewolves the way I was taught to, was wrong. Kate, my aunt, killed my father because he didn’t agree with her when she wanted to kill Derek. But our family had a code, _we hunt those who hunt us_ , and Derek didn’t kill anyone. When I found out that she broke the code before, that she was the one who killed the Hales, I went to Derek and helped him kill her. I… I’ve been with them ever since.’

‘Jesus Christ’, Stiles hisses, after a beat.

‘Yeah, no’, Scott nods. ‘You win. You’re way more fucked up than I ever was.’

‘Gee, thanks’, Derek rolls his eyes.

Whatever Scott wanted to respond was cut off by the front door opening and closing, and a man’s voice shouting for Stiles.

‘Figured they should be here’, he shrugs and heads to the door.

He comes back with Scott’s mother, still wearing blue scrubs and a tired look on her face, and with an older man dressed in a black Police uniform. Derek’s sight skips from his badge, to his gun, to the wedding ring on his finger.

‘What did you do?’, the Sheriff turns towards Stiles, a serious look in his eyes.

‘I swear I didn’t do anything’, Stiles laughs. ‘Not my fault all mythical creatures in this town are attracted to me.’

The Sheriff turns towards them, then, and his eyes stop on Derek. He raises an eyebrow and Derek feels the sudden urge to explain himself.

‘Uh… Werewolf. My name is Derek Hale. Sir.’, he manages to say.

‘Isaac Lahey, I’m his beta.’, he says, more firmly.

‘Lydia Martin, banshee.’

‘Allison Argent, hunter’, she smiles. ‘Turned completely over to the good side.’

The Sheriff stares at them for a couple of seconds, then turns to Stiles and slaps him on the back of his head. ‘Go get me a beer’, he says with no inflection in his voice and sits next to Scott.

‘I knew it!’, Melissa smiles, looking at Isaac and sitting down on a chair next to Derek. ‘I thought I saw you during the storm, taking the pain away from some of the patients.’

‘We tried to be stealthy’, Isaac blushes. ‘But we were exhausted, it was hard to think straight.’

‘No, I wasn’t scolding you, I was thanking you. You all were great help during the storm.’ She’s so soft, but Derek knows she’s a strong person, he’s seen her in the chaos at the hospital. It reminds Derek of his Laura, and judging by the look in Isaac’s eyes, he feels the same.

‘Yeah. They’re the good ones, mom’, Scott smiles, a goofy smile that makes him look 10 years younger and makes Allison’s heart beat speed up a bit.

Stiles comes back then, smiling at his best friend. He hands his father a bottle of beer and gets his hair ruffled in thanks. Then, he goes to Melissa, having to step around Derek to do so. Stiles gives her a warm cup of coffee, that smells like cinnamon and sugar. The woman smiles and pulls him down to give him a gentle kiss on the cheek.

‘Thank you, sweetie.’

‘You’re welcome’, Stiles blushes and goes to sit on the other couch, next to Lydia.

‘So’, the Sheriff says, looking intently at Derek, ‘Will you being here end in war and mayhem or is this a peace treaty?’

‘Daaaad!’, Stiles groans and buries his face in his hands. ‘What the hell is wrong with you?’

‘Well I’m sorry, son, but we don’t exactly have a good track record with other Alphas.’

‘So I’ve heard.’, Derek manages to say.

‘Sheriff, you should go easy on them.’, Scott says, with a bit of force in his voice. ‘They’ve been here a while, even during the full moon. If they were up to evil, they would have done it already.’

‘No evil here’, Isaac grins.

‘Wait’, the Sheriff frowns. ‘You’re Derek Hale. From New York.’

‘Yes?’, Derek frowns.

The Sheriff just looks at him, eyes skipping all over his face. ‘Do you have any family?’

‘No, sir. Just my pack.’, he says softly.

The Sheriff nods, slowly, still looking at him oddly. ‘Right. They died. In the Hale fire from 10 years ago. In New York. Talia and Mark Hale, and their family.’

‘Not all of it, but...’, Derek manages to say. ‘There’s just me now. And Isaac, he lived with us since he was 14.’

‘How do you even know about that?’, Stiles asks his father.

‘Your mother used to work with Talia every now and then.’, the Sheriff answers, but he’s still looking at Derek. ‘You have her eyes’, he smiles.

Derek doesn’t know what to say, so he just nods and accepts the hand Isaac puts on his shoulder.

‘Huh.’, Stiles says.

Isaac starts laughing, it sounds a bit hysterical. ‘Your mother was the lady who painted only people with wolves, wasn’t she?’

‘Aha’, Stiles wheezes out.

‘Man, Talia loved her’, Isaac continues to Derek’s astonishment. ‘There was even one of her paintings in the house. Do you… Can you even imagine how hilarious it was for them? They called me the boy who ran with wolves, because I was a human living in a werewolf house, but your mom had no idea.’

‘How did they know eachother?’, Lydia frowns. It’s Stiles who answers.

‘My mother was a painter. She mostly did illustrations for children’s books, but she also painted uhm… people and wolves. Every now and then, she’d have an exhibit in one of Talia Hale’s art galleries.’

‘She’d always say, _there’s something different about the Hales_ ’, the Sheriff continues. ‘And every time she came back from New York or wherever they were, she’d spend weeks just … painting them. I think the Hales inspired half of the work she did. The other half was Stiles and I.’

After a few seconds of complete silence, Derek manages to turn ro Stiles, who’s looking at him with an odd look in his eyes.

‘Uhh…’, Stiles says, blushing, but not taking his eyes away.

‘This is… weird’, Derek manages to say. ‘Even for Night Vale.’

‘Agreed’, Stiles’ father says. ‘And I’m not just talking about this coincidence, I’m talking about a pack of werewolves staying in my town. So what are we going to do about it?’, He used a more forceful voice, reminding Derek that he is a figure of great authority in Night Vale.

‘With all due respect, sir’, Derek lowered his eyes. ‘We… We were thinking that we should move from our hotels rooms. I found a nice big house to rent near the lab. Me and my team, we still have work to do in this town. We’d like to be able to continue it. The fact that there’s another pack here would not be a problem from our end. But, if it is one from your perspective, then we’ll leave.’

‘Derek, son’, the Sheriff smiles. ‘I was part of the team that approved of you coming here. If you say that fangs and claws won’t be a problem, that’s fine by me.’

‘Dad’, Stiles snorts. ‘Fangs and claws could actually come in handy at the right time and in the right place. Like, you know, in the dog park. With a freaking minotaur.’

‘Right.’, the Sheriff rolls his eyes. ‘If my son explained things correctly, I think it’s Scott’s choice, right? Being an Alpha and all.’

Everybody looks at Scott at that, who’s busy devouring a piece of pizza. He blushes, and swallows. Then, he smiles at Derek. ‘Dude, you don’t have to leave just cause I’m here. I mean, look…’ he sighed. ‘I have never met a functional werewolf. Except me. And, after the three hour long speech Stiles yelled at me yesterday, I realized that I need… functional… werewolves in my life.’

Derek raised an eyebrow.

‘I assume that when Stiles said it, it didn’t sound so gay.’, Melissa chuckled.

‘No, it did not.’, Stiles agreed, amused. ‘And that’s odd, considering I’m the gay one in this relationship.’

Derek rolled his eyes. ‘So we’re staying.’, he smiled at Scott.

‘Yup.’

‘And you’re answering questions.’, Stiles adds.

‘Of course.’

‘And you’ll help Scott and Stiles in keeping this town safe from every other monster that decides to make Night Vale its hunting ground.’, the Sheriff adds.

‘Does that happen often?’, Allison frowns.

‘Not really.’, he shrugs. ‘A zombie here and there, a ghost every once in a while.’

‘You’re not joking’, Derek realizes.

‘Nope’, Stiles grins. ‘But hey!, the more the merrier!’, he adds, excitedly.

Scott groans and calls him an idiot. Everybody laughs.

-

They don’t even get to go into the lab the next day. Stiles called Derek early in the morning, telling him that there was a 15 feet tall cat terrorizing the children’s playground. The pack got there as fast as they could, and they found a shifted Scott fighting the giant cat, and Stiles firing a shotgun at it.

‘Feel free to wolf out, wolfies!’, Stiles yelled when he saw them approaching. ‘Dad’s got it covered. Shoot to kill, cause this monster, however fluffy it may be, killed 3 kids and injured 10 more!’

Derek and Isaac ran to help Scott, trying to claw at the cat’s feet. When they saw it wasn’t working, they helped each other jump at its throat. All the time, Stiles and Lydia were shooting bullets at its head, and Allison was aiming arrows at its heart.

Ten minutes later, they’ve managed to kill the beast. However, when it fell down, one of its claws hit Stiles in the side. He fell to the floor with a shout of pain, and Derek rushed to his side, panicking. He wasn’t used to humans getting injured, not anymore. Allison and Lydia were always incredibly careful, and nothing happened to them till now.

But Stiles, Stiles was now shouting and trembling under Derek’s fingers. He tried to apply pressure to the wound on his ribs, but Stiles couldn’t keep still. The wolf was taking some of the pain away from him, veins going black, and he barely registered Scott and Isaac doing the same.

‘We need to get him to the hospital’, Lydia screamed.

‘No’, Stiles whispered. ‘No hospital.’

‘You’re bleeding. To death!’, Derek shouted, hands covered in blood, the smell of it making him want to throw up.

‘No.’, Stiles said, more forcefully. ‘Do not take me to the hospital. I will kill you, Derek, I swear to god I will-‘,  he was cut off by a shout of pain.

‘Scott’, he managed to wheeze out.

‘No hospital, I promise’, the Alpha nodded, bringing their foreheads together. Then, Stiles passed out.

‘We have to get him to the hospital’, Lydia said, staring Scott down.

‘No.’, he shook his head. ‘He can’t… He won’t… No hospitals’, he flashed his eyes. ‘I’ll call my mom and she’ll meet us at Stiles’ house. God knows it’s not the first time.’ There was hurt in Scott’s eyes, and he was so scared for his best friend, it melted Derek’s heart.

‘Okay’, he said, picking Stiles up. ‘We’re going to the lab, we have more supplies.’

Scott pulled out his phone and they all started running to their cars.

Half an hour later, they were all pacing in the lab, trying to give Melissa space to work, but none of them wanted to step too far away from the metal table Stiles was laying on, still unconscious.

‘He’s going to be fine, please stop pacing!’, Melissa said in a very motherly tone, that made all of them freeze.

‘He’s gonna be okay?’, Scott asked in a small voice, stepping forward and taking one of Stiles’ hands in his.

‘Yes, sweetie, he is. He lost blood, but not so much. I cleaned the wounds and now I’m suturing them. He’ll probably have some scars, but-‘

‘He likes them’, Scott smiled. ‘You know he likes them.’

‘Yeah, he does’, Melissa smiled too. ‘At least this one didn’t screw up his tattoos’.

Only after she said that, Derek realized that Stiles didn’t have a shirt on. So he tried to calm himself down, knowing now that Stiles will be okay, by looking at his tattoos. The tentacles stopped when they reached his torso. Just a few of them went over his collarbone, but other than that, Stiles’ chest was bare. But as Derek’s eyes moved lower, he saw that Stiles had another tattoo on his hip, just above the line of his jeans. It was a wolf figure, highly simplified and stylized. Its eyes were yellow. Derek couldn’t help but snort.

Scott turned to him, raising a questioning eyebrow.

‘Shouldn’t he update the wolf?’, Derek smiled. ‘Your eyes aren’t gold anymore.’

Melissa snorted and Scott shook his head. ‘That’s not me.’, he smiled. ‘That’s Stiles.’

‘But he’s not a werewolf’, Isaac frowned.

‘No, but he is my beta.’

‘Sometimes, he gets more… wolfy than Scott does.’, Melissa smiled.

Everybody looked at her in confusion, even her son. ‘Oh come on, you know I’m right. He’s right there beside you in every fight, he’s a better shot than you, he spends night after night researching, and he’s much scarier than you are.’

‘Mom!’, Scott said, indignantly. ‘I have claws. And fangs.’

‘Yes you do, sweetheart.’, she smiled broadly. ‘And Stiles is morally ambiguous, smart and mouthy. That makes him more of a threat that you are.’

‘Touche’, Scott nodded, after a beat.

‘Damn right’, they heard Stiles wheeze out.

‘Sweetie, stay down.’, Melissa smiled. ‘I’m not done with you yet.’

‘Tell it to me straight, not-mom. Am I gonna live?’

Melissa snorted. ‘It’s just a flesh wound, you drama queen. It’ll scar, but you’ll be fine.’

‘Yay’, Stiles smiled. ‘Am I drugged?’

‘Only the best werewolves have to offer for our Stiles’.

It was then when Stiles looked away from Melissa and around the room. He smiled at Scott, noticing that they were holding hands and that the wolf’s veins were black. He squeezed his hand harder.

‘Where are we?’

‘The lab’, Scott smiled.

‘Holy shit!’, Stiles shrieked, turning his head around towards where the pack was standing.  He didn’t say anything, he just stared at them. When his eyes met Derek’s, the wolf smiled, just a bit. That seemed to snap Stiles out of whatever trance he was in, and he looked back at Melissa, who in the meantime, has finished tending to his wounds.

‘Can I go home now, not-mommy?’, he sounded miserable. ‘I just wanna go home.’

Melissa’s eyes turned softer, and a small smile played on her lips. She bent down and kissed Stiles’ forehead, ruffling his hair.

‘No, sweetie, you shouldn’t move too much for a few hours. You need to rest.’

‘You can stay here’, Derek said. ‘The couch is pretty comfortable.’

‘I shouldn’t’, Stiles shook his head. ‘The station-‘

‘I already wrote a letter to Station Management’, Scott chuckled. ‘I didn’t even get to deliver it, they called and told me you have three days off.’

‘I never had a day off in my life. Who’s gonna do the show?’

‘Nobody could replace you, Stiles’, Scott smiled.

‘I wanna go home’, he whined, turning his head towards Melissa and resting it against her stomach. Derek thought he was acting like a spoiled brat, but he didn’t say anything out loud, especially when he saw the loving look Melissa was giving Stiles, or how softly her fingers were brushing through his hair.

‘Later, Stiles. I’m gonna give you something to help you sleep.’

‘I don’t wanna.’

‘Too bad, because I already did.’, Melissa grinned.

‘Traitor.’, Stiles whispered, closing his eyes.

‘You taught me well.’

‘Someone call dad.’

‘I already did.’, Melissa assured him, still petting his hair. ‘He’s stuck at the station, but he’ll bring you burgers first thing in the morning.’

‘Love you.’

Stiles whispered it so low, and slurred, it came out more like _wuv you_ , and Derek wouldn’t have been able to hear it if he wasn’t a werewolf. Scott smiled fondly at his best friend and shook his head in mock exasperation, and his mother just kind of… melted, a faint blush coloring her cheeks.

‘You too, Stiles. Go to sleep.’

-

Melissa left, but not before giving Derek instructions on changing Stiles’ bandages and on what pain meds he should take when he wakes up. He sent his pack home too, the fight left them all tired, and they all knew they weren’t going to get any proper work done today.

Scott was reluctant to leave, but he had to work. He was still kneeling next to the couch Stiles laid on, petting his hair with one hand and taking pain away with the other.

‘He’ll be fine, Scott’, Derek said, softly. ‘I’ll be here if anything happens, and I have you and your mother’s number.’

The wolf nodded and made his way towards Derek. He stood in front of him for a couple of seconds, and Derek smiled, as reassuringly as he could, putting a hand on Scott’s shoulder.

‘He’ll be fine, you have my word.’, Derek nodded.

Then, Scott smiled and before Derek realized what he was doing, Scott had a hand around his neck and the other on his back, and he was hugging Derek tightly. Derek froze, heart skipping a beat. He wasn’t used to displays of affections, not like this, not after Laura died.

After the fire, it took a long time for him to let anybody touch him, let alone hug him. But Laura did it, and it involved screaming and slapping, but she did it. And once they’d started, Derek couldn’t stop hugging his sister. After she died, it was harder. Even now, with his pack, he was reluctant. Yes, they’d touch each other, a hand on the shoulder, a friendly slap on the back, he’d even held hands with the girls once or twice, in times of trouble. But they didn’t hug often. 

And now, Scott was rubbing his nose against his neck and clutching to the back of his shirt. So Derek sighed, and brought his hands up to Scott’s back. After a while, he ruffled his hair and pushed him back.

‘Take care of him.’, Scott said, looking into Derek’s eyes.

‘I said I would.’

Scott smiled. ‘I wasn’t talking about his injury.’

And Derek didn’t know how to answer that. So, after a few beats, he nodded. And Scott left, leaving him all alone in his lab, with a sleeping Stiles and a weird feeling in his gut.

Derek shook his head and made his way towards the coffee maker.

-

Stiles slept throughout the day, even if Derek changed his bandages 5 times. After 12 hours, Derek was worried, so he called Melissa. She calmed him down, speaking softly and smiling, saying that Stiles always sleeps too much, and that he had a few sleepless nights before, so this was normal.

Then she spoke in her mother voice, and told him that Scott will be coming by the lab shortly, bringing him something to eat, leaving no room for argument. Derek thanked her and told her that he owed her, to which she just laughed.

‘Just take care of him. That’s enough for me.’

‘May I ask you something?’, Derek asks, after a beat.

‘Of course.’

‘Why does he call you not-mom?’

She laughed. ‘I’ve known Stiles since he and Scott were 10. He lost his mother before that, and well… The Sheriff and I basically raised them together. I’ve been the only proper mother figure in his life since. I would tell you when it all started, but it’s too personal of a story for me to tell, so you’ll have to ask him.’

Derek sighed. ‘Thank you, Melissa.’

‘Scott will be there soon. Try to get some sleep, big bad alpha werewolves need rest too.’

‘Mom, stop mothering Derek!’, he heard Scott shout in the background.

‘Stop listening in on my phone calls!’, she yelled back. ‘Sorry’, she said softer, to Derek.

‘I’m going to hang up now’, Derek said, in lack of anything better.

‘Probably for the best’, she chuckled and hung up.

Scott arrived 15 minutes later, with homemade lasagna, a greek salad and freshly squeezed orange juice. Derek realized that he was, in fact, starving. They ate on the table closest to the couch, and they didn’t talk much. Scott apologized for having to leave, but Derek waved him off.

He didn’t want to fall asleep. But he did, still sitting at the table, with his head resting on his hands. When he woke up, it took him a while to come around to his surroundings and remember what happened. When he turned his head around, Derek realized that he woke up because Stiles’ heart beat changed. Looking up, he saw Stiles looking at him, wide eyed and startled.

Stiles tried to sit up quickly, but he fell back with a sharp intake of breath, hand clutching his side. Derek was by his side in seconds, hands hovering over his body, but not touching.

‘I’m fine’, Stiles said, panting at the ceiling.

‘Melissa left pain meds. I’ll go get them.’

When he returned with a few pills and a bottle of water, Stiles was sitting up, with his feet on the coffee table, looking around the lab. He seemed curious and excited, but his heartbeat was beating faster than it should have and he had a blush on his cheeks. Derek smiled and sat down on the coffee table.

‘What time is it?’, Stiles asked after he took the pills.

‘2 am.’

Stiles turned towards him. ‘Did I sleep all day? And half the night?’

‘I was worried’, Derek nodded. ‘But Melissa said you were tired. How are you feeling?’

‘Eh’, Stiles shrugged. ‘It hurts, but the pills will kick in. I’ve done worse. There’s one problem, though.’

‘What is it?’

‘I’m shirtless.’, Stiles said in a serious tone, making Derek choke on a laugh. He got up and headed towards the bathroom, where he kept a spare set of clothes.

‘Your shirt got shredded. I didn’t think to ask Scott to get you another one.’

He pulled out a simple, gray, long sleeved shirt and threw it to Stiles. He put it on, and it was too big for him, but not overly big. He was fit, but not as fit at Derek, so the wolf chuckled when he saw Stiles pulling the sleeves of the shirt completely over his hands, remembering how he used to do that as a child.

‘Can I use your phone? I need to call dad.’, Stiles said next.

Derek wordlessly handled him his phone, and moved towards the kitchen, giving him some privacy. He didn’t listen in on the conversation, concentrating into brewing two cups of coffee.

When Stiles was done with the phone call, he got up and slowly walked towards Derek, still looking curiously at the lab, gently touching things on his way.

‘How do you take your coffee?’

‘Black.’, Stiles answered, but his eyes were glued to the big whiteboard they placed on the free wall near the kitchen. They named it ‘The Problem Board’, and it was divided into four parts, one for each of their fields. Each of them had written down the things that they’ve encountered in Night Vale that should be impossible in the rest of the world.

‘This can’t be good’, Stiles whispered.

‘It is what it is’, Derek shrugged, handing him a cup of coffee. ‘Should you be standing?’

‘I’m fine’, Stiles shrugged. ‘I don’t… You’re calmer.’

Derek raised an eyebrow.

‘About… not understanding Night Vale’, Stiles explained.

‘I’m still frustrated’, Derek shrugged. ‘And I’m still trying to make sense of everything, but… ‘

‘But what?’, Stiles asked softly, peeking at Derek from across his cup of coffee.

‘I was angry for a long time. After the fire. I think I’m just tired.’

‘Of being angry?’

‘Yeah… It sounds dumb’, Derek chuckled.

‘It’s not’, Stiles smiled. ‘I get it. I do.’

‘I don’t.’

Stiles just looked at him for a couple of seconds. Derek didn’t see pity in his eyes, like he always saw in people when he’d mention the fire. He saw understanding. And that made his stomach flip.

‘So, uh…’, Stiles looked around, suddenly nervous. ‘Did I really call Melissa not-mom in front of your whole pack?’

‘Yes. And not-mommy.’

Stiles’ eye grew wide and he blushed furiously, rubbing a hand over his eyes. Derek chuckled.

‘It’s fine’, he tried to sound reassuring. ‘It’s quite adorable, really.’

Stiles scoffed. ‘I should explain.’

‘You don’t have to. She… She told me a bit, but it’s not any of my business. It’s between you and her.’

‘My mom died when I was 8’, Stiles nodded, turning around and heading towards the nearest desk, leaning against it.

‘Scott was the first one to make me laugh after that. I met him when I was 10, right after his father left.’

‘You don’t have to tell me, Stiles’, Derek moved closer to him, one step short of touching him.

‘I want to. You told us your story, you and your pack. And Scott told you his. It’s my turn’, he smiled shyly at Derek, then looked down and started running his fingers along the rim of the cup he was holding.

‘My dad and Melissa, when they figured out Scott and I were and will be inseparable, they teamed up and practically raised us together. The not-mom thing came… uhm. It happened when I was 17, I think. Scott just broke up with someone, and he was kind of depressed. So I went over with a big chocolate cake and Melissa was home. She…’, he smiled, but he still wasn’t looking at Derek.

‘I don’t ever remember what she was telling me. She was using her mother voice, you know, telling me to not do something or whatever. And I just rolled my eyes and said ‘yes, mom’, like a spoiled little shit.’, he laughed. ‘We didn’t even realize what I said for a couple of seconds. But when I did, I just… I had a panic attack. It wasn’t the first, or the last.’ (*)

He looked up at Derek, then, and smiled. ‘And Melissa just… took the cake out of my hands, put it on the ground and hugged me, coached me through it. She told me that she knew that I didn’t mean it, that she’ll never be her, but that she loves me just as much as she loves Scott and that it’s okay.’

‘She’s a great woman’, was what Derek managed to say.

Stiles nodded. ‘After that, she took me to Scott’s room, threw us both on the bed, got in between us and we ate all the cake and watched Disney movies, until late at night when Dad got off his shift and picked me up.’

‘So what does Scott call your father?’, Derek asked after a few seconds.

Stiles laughed. ‘Dad will always be the Sheriff to Scott. He called him that since he saw his badge. He only got elected 5 years later.’

‘Yeah, no’, Derek nodded. ‘That’s adorable.’

Stiles kept laughing, and Derek started laughing too, because it was a delightful sound. That’s how the Sheriff found them. He didn’t even bat an eye, he just marched toward his son and hugged him tightly. Derek grabbed the cup out of Stiles’ hands and moved away, giving them some space.

‘Thank you for helping my son, Derek’, the Sheriff said after a while.

‘Don’t…’, Derek whispered. ‘I’m sorry I wasn’t able to protect him better, to begin with.’

The Sheriff’s eyes grew wider, but it was gone in a flash. Then, he chuckled.

‘Stiles is not one to be protected. It’s impossible, he will always end up in trouble, and the sooner you learn that, the better.’

‘Heeey!’, Stiles shrieked, but the tip of his ears were red.

‘May I ask something?’, Derek moved closer to them. After the Sheriff nodded, he tried to speak as forcefully as he could. ‘Stiles said you made sure to keep the… scene under wraps. So that nobody would see us fight… Like we do. How did you do that?’

‘I can’t talk about that with civilians’, he responded, apologetically. ‘But trust that your secret is safe with me and that I am doing everything in my power to keep it that way.’

Derek didn’t say anything at first, but the Sheriff was giving him an expecting look, so he squared his shoulders and cleared his throat. ‘Thank you. I… I believe you, I know you weren’t lying. I do trust you. But trust comes harder for me these days, and I have to be careful for my pack.’

‘And I understand that. Just know that I have your back, son, okay? That’s all I’m asking.’

‘Yes, sir’, Derek said, and he managed to smile at the Sheriff. He returned it.

‘Can we go home now, Dad?’, Stiles whispered, resting his head on his father’s shoulder. ‘The pain killers are kicking in and I miss my bed. It’s a nice bed, I love my bed. I cheated on my bed with Derek’s couch.’

The Sheriff looked down at him with a fond smile. ‘Come on, kid. Before you start telling me again about the time you took Scott to the gay club.’

‘He got all the free drinks’, Stiles pouted and Derek fought back a laugh.

After they left, Derek went home and slept for a couple of hours. When he came back to the lab, there was a big package waiting for him. It had five different couch cushions and a couple of blankets, colorful and soft, that had the girls squealing in delight. It also had a couple of bottles of beer and a few different chocolates. There was a handwritten note, on a simple purple paper, the same color as Stiles’ business card.

 

 

_A gloomy lair is not a good working environment. Thank you. –Stiles_

Three days later, Derek listened to Stiles apologizing to his listeners for an hour straight. But he never once said the reason he wasn’t at work. Then, he listened to Stiles wax poetics about his forearms, and Derek gave up on work in favor of going for a run.


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Texting, drug busts and doubles make people come closer.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter features a... uhm... a killing scene (not important character). It's bloody, but over quickly. Also, emotional distress, not quite panic attacks, but not far from it. And nightmares.

Derek didn’t see Stiles for the next few weeks, but they texted every day. Stiles would ask him questions about being a werewolf, sometimes stupid, and sometimes oddly insightful. Derek would always answer, to his pack’s amusement, and as the days passed, they both shared a lot of personal information to one another.

 _Stiles:_ Do big packs go running on the full moon?  
 _Derek:_ Some do.  
 _Stiles:_ Do you?  
 _Derek:_ Not usually. We’re more into pizza and movies these days.

 _Stiles:_ How much does your healing stretch?   
_Derek:_ What?  
 _Stiles:_ Like, if you’d lose an arm, would it grow back?  
 _Derek_ : I don’t know, nor do I wish to find out. But, in theory, it should.  
 _Derek:_ It would take a lot of time and energy, though.  
 _Stiles:_ So werewolves are, essentially, immortal?  
 _Derek:_ No. Wolfsbane kills us. Also, cutting us in half.  
 _Stiles:_ Ew.

 _Stiles:_ I need to get my hands on wolfsbane. Have any?  
 _Derek:_ Why?  
 _Stiles:_ In theory, with the right amount of dosage, a wolf could get leisurely drunk on it.  
 _Derek:_ … I’ll tell Allison to email you the dosage.  
 _Stiles:_ THANK YOU I'LL FINALLY GET SCOTT DRUNK THIS IS GOING TO BE THE BEST  
 _Derek:_ Just be careful.  
 _Stiles:_ Always

 _Stiles:_ Is Allison as excited as Scott is?  
 _Derek:_ About?  
 _Stiles:_ Their date.  
 _Derek:_ She hasn’t said anything. But the high heels make sense now.  
 _Stiles:_ Oh.  
 _Derek:_ Now that you’ve mentioned it, she has been distracted all day.  
 _Stiles:_ Is that a good thing or a bad thing?  
 _Derek:_ Good for Scott, bad for me.  
 _Stiles:_ Scott hasn’t had the best of luck in dating.  
 _Stiles:_ All of his past relationships have either been dragged out too long, or ended too soon.  
 _Stiles:_ They all ended badly, with him getting extremely hurt.  
 _Stiles:_ He’s really excited about Allison. I’m… concerned.  
 _Derek:_ Her parents didn’t let her date, when she was with them. She only had one real relationship.  
 _Derek:_ He was a serial killer, killed 8 women while they were dating.  
 _Derek:_ She hasn’t trusted anyone since then. So this is big for her.  
 _Stiles:_ Fuck  
 _Stiles:_ I think they have a shot.  
 _Derek:_ So do I, surprisingly enough. Lydia agrees.   
_Stiles:_ This conversation never happened.  
 _Derek:_ Obviously.

 _Stiles:_ Scott has been talking about Allison’s dimples for the past hour. Help.  
 _Derek:_ Allison has been talking to Lydia for the past hour, too. Apparently, Scott is a very good kisser.  
 _Derek:_ I could’ve lived without knowing that. And other things.  
 _Stiles:_ I regret everything right not. At least you can turn off the hearing. I can’t just walk away.  
 _Derek:_ I can’t not listen. I can’t just stop.  
 _Derek:_ Help.  
 _Stiles:_ Help.  
 _Stiles:_ This is all our fault.  
 _Derek:_ She’s happy.  
 _Stiles:_ So is he.   
_Stiles:_ Well, shit.  
 _Derek:_ Indeed.

 _Stiles:_ Were all your siblings wolves?  
 _Derek:_ No. Most of them. Dad was human.  
 _Stiles:_ Your mother was the Alpha?  
 _Derek:_ Yes. But she was more of a mother to us, than our Alpha.  
 _Derek:_ She was a strong Alpha, respected. It was always weird to us when other packs visited.   
_Derek:_ Because to us, she was the one who made smiley faces on our pancakes and tucked us in, even if we were grown up.  
 _Derek:_ And to them, she was powerful and feared, and they all looked up to her.  
 _Stiles:_ I get that. Night Vale sees the Sheriff as a god of sorts, while I see the man who used to fall asleep on the couch, watching cartoons with me.  
 _Derek:_ Is this what celebrity children feel like?  
 _Stiles:_ Haha. Pretty sure, yeah.  
 _Derek:_ You’re your own celebrity, though.  
 _Stiles:_ And you’re your own Alpha.  
 _Derek:_ Don’t ever forget that.

 _Stiles:_ When did you first change?  
 _Derek:_ Puberty. It depends for everyone. Usually, within the year after you hit puberty.  
 _Stiles:_ When did YOU first change?  
 _Derek:_ I was 13.   
_Stiles:_  Early bloomer?  
 _Derek:_ My mother used to say I was too jealous of Laura, so I hurried.

 _Derek:_ You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to, but why didn’t you want to go to the hospital when you were hurt?  
 _Stiles:_ My mother died in a hospital. It took a year and a half for her to finally let go.  
 _Stiles:_ I was there when she gave her final breath.  
 _Stiles:_ I have no problem with being in the hospital, but not as a patient.  
 _Stiles:_ I can’t handle that.   
_Derek:_ Thank you for telling me.  
 _Stiles:_ Thank you for not saying you’re sorry.  
 _Derek:_ I know that doesn’t mean anything.

 _Stiles:_ Do you ever use your claws in mundane activities?  
 _Stiles:_ Opening a pack of something, slicing ham, scratching your back, sex?  
 _Derek:_ You should really stop reading those werewolf porn sites.  
 _Stiles:_ I have no idea what you’re talking about.  
 _Derek:_ Sure you don’t.  
 _Stiles:_ I heard the sarcasm and I’m ignoring it. Answer the question.  
 _Derek:_ Maybe?

 _Derek:_ Lydia told me to tell you to stop wearing plaid.  
 _Stiles:_ NEVER!   
_Derek:_ Lydia told me to tell you you’re an idiot.  
 _Stiles:_ Tell Lydia she’s a hypocrite, I saw her in that gorgeous pink and purple plaid trenchcoat yesterday.  
 _Derek:_ I gave her your number. I will not be part of this conversation anymore.

 _Derek:_ Stop talking to Lydia about me.  
 _Stiles:_ No.  
 _Derek:_ Just stop.  
 _Stiles:_ Hell no, Der-bear.  
 _Derek:_ I’m going to rip her throat out.  
 _Stiles:_ Don’t. She has a nice throat, wouldn’t want it to go to waste.

 _Stiles:_ Where do werewolves come from?  
 _Derek:_ … I don’t understand that question. ???!?  
 _Stiles:_ I don’t know how to formulate this without sounding rude or insensitive.  
 _Derek:_ Just ask, Stiles. I don’t mind.  
 _Derek:_ I do reserve the right to not answer, though.  
 _Stiles:_ Okay. Fair enough.  
 _Stiles:_ Where did the werewolf race come from? On one hand, you’re a scientist. So you could argue an evolutionary theory, gene mutation, something.  
 _Stiles:_ On the other hand, I’m sure you had bedtime stories. About a wolf and a girl in the woods, about gods who punished humans and turned them into wolves.  
 _Stiles:_ And so on and so forth. The internet and the books I came across are consistent in both theories.  
 _Stiles:_ However, you grew up in one of the oldest family of werewolves. I’m pretty sure you had a lot of insight, that us mere mortals can’t get.  
 _Stiles:_ So … Which one is it?  
 _Derek:_ I don’t really know. My mother was a cerebral person, so every time we’d ask, she’d argue, as you said, an evolutionary theory.  
 _Derek:_ She’d never say anything specific, though. Just compare the evolution from human to werewolves to the one from primates to human.   
_Derek:_ But she wouldn’t give us details, arguing that we didn’t know enough science to actually understand the evolutionary theory.   
_Derek:_ My grandmother, on the other hand, was more of a free spirit. She was the one who always told us the stories.  
 _Derek:_ And you are right, they were bedtime stories to us. But we figured out she believed in them. I remember Laura and I asked her once, how does she believe we came to exist.  
 _Derek:_ She didn’t answer, not really. But from what we understood from it, she believed in magic. She believed that werewolves were just enchanted humans.  
 _Stiles:_ But what do you believe?  
 _Derek:_ I can’t believe in magic, I’m a scientist. I can’t believe the evolutionary theory, because the jump from human to wolf is way higher than the one from primate to human.  
 _Derek:_ Werewolves shouldn’t exist. Werewolves are impossible.  
 _Stiles:_ Your existence is not impossible. But it’s also not very likely.  
 _Derek:_ What do you believe? You seem to have did a lot of research.  
 _Stiles:_ I don’t know. At first, after Scott got bit, it bugged me a lot. Now, I don’t really care anymore. I don’t care about the how or why. I just care that you are real.   
_Stiles:_ That you werewolves are real.  
 _Derek:_ My turn. I just have one question.  
 _Derek:_ You said I came from ‘one of the oldest family of werewolves’. Why did you say that?  
 _Stiles:_ It’s true, isn’t it?  
 _Derek:_ Yes, but I did not tell you that.  
 _Stiles:_ The internet did.  
 _Derek:_ No, it didn’t. I’m sure that if you google ‘Hale’, nowhere does the phrase ‘old werewolf family’ make an appearance.   
_Stiles:_ No, you’re right about that. But I did find one of Laura’s college papers, documenting your family’s tree. She made it all the way back to 1600.   
_Stiles:_ I may or may not have used some of my dad’s resources, and I managed to go back to 900.  
 _Stiles:_ You said your Alpha was feared and respected. And the Hale blood is old as hell. Hence, my assumption.  
 _Derek:_ Stiles. Did you research me?  
 _Stiles:_ Obviously. It’s what I do. But, in my defense, I only did it after I found out you’re a werewolf.  
 _Stiles:_ Sorry.  
 _Derek:_ It’s fine. Understandable, really. It’s no problem.  
 _Stiles:_ Don’t act like you didn’t do the same.  
 _Derek:_ I didn’t.  
 _Stiles:_ Well Lydia did. You should ask her for details if you want.  
 _Derek:_ Or I could just ask you.  
 _Stiles:_ True.   
_Stiles:_ This conversation was most enlightening. And quite entertaining.  
 _Stiles:_ Thank you for answering me.  
 _Derek:_ Anytime.

 _Stiles:_ Do werewolves have a knot?  
 _Stiles:_ Scott doesn’t. But he was bitten, maybe it’s different for born wolves?  
 _Stiles:_ Derek?  
 _Stiles:_ You’re not going to answer me, are you?  
 _Derek:_ You’re an idiot.  
 _Stiles:_ I’ll take that as a no. Feel free to correct me.  
 _Stiles:_ Derek?  
 _Stiles:_ So it’s a no, then.  
 _Derek:_ You’re an idiot.

 _Stiles:_ Can I hire Isaac from time to time?  
 _Derek:_ Hire him to do what?  
 _Stiles:_ Check Khoshekh and the kitties.  
 _Derek:_ I’m don’t think you have to hire him for that. He wants to see them. I’m pretty sure he’s in love.  
 _Stiles:_ OMG I LOVE HIM  
 _Stiles:_ SEND HIM OVER  
 _Stiles:_ OR GIVE ME HIS NUMER  
 _Stiles:_ OMG  
 _Derek:_ So the way to your heart is trough Khoshekh?  
 _Stiles:_ Not literally.  
 _Derek:_ That’s disgusting.

 _Stiles:_ Derek? Permission to… share tmi?  
 _Derek:_ What is tmi?  
 _Stiles:_ Too much info.  
 _Derek:_ Okay?  
 _Stiles:_ I think Scott and Allison had sex.  
 _Derek:_ I don’t think that’s any of your business.  
 _Stiles:_ Derek, he can’t stop smiling. He’s been at work for three hours and he won’t stop smiling.  
 _Stiles:_ Or texting. He’s been texting constantly, and grinning like an idiot down at his phone.  
 _Stiles:_ Sometimes, he’d blush and giggle. GIGGLE.   
_Stiles:_ IT’S SCARY  
 _Derek:_ Oh fuck I hate you  
 _Stiles:_ What? Why?  
 _Derek:_ You made me do it  
 _Stiles:_ Do what?!!!!!??  
 _Derek:_ They had sex at Scott’s apartment.   
_Stiles:_ How could you possibly know that? PLEASE TELL ME SHE ISN’T TALKING ABOUT IT??  
 _Derek:_ No. But I can smell it.  
 _Stiles:_ Holy god  
 _Derek:_ I hate you  
 _Stiles:_ I understand  
 _Derek:_ This conversation never happened  
 _Stiles:_ Of course

 _Stiles:_ Scott got a tattoo today. It’s hideous.  
 _Derek:_ I thought you were above judging people for their ink.  
 _Stiles:_ Oh, I’m not judging. I just fucking hate it.  
 _Derek:_ What is it?  
 _Stiles:_ [picture0337.jpg]  
 _Derek:_ It’s not that bad. Does it mean something?  
 _Stiles:_ At first it didn’t. Now it does.  
 _Derek:_  ??  
 _Stiles:_ I don’t know either.

 _Stiles:_ DEREK WHY DID IT HEAL?  
 _Derek:_ Why did what heal?  
 _Stiles:_ SCOTT’S TATTOO WHAT THE FUCK   
_Stiles:_ I UNDERSTAND WHY IT HEALED BUT HOW DO I FIX IT  
 _Stiles:_ BRING IT BACK ?!!?  
 _Derek:_ I thought you hated it? :)  
 _Stiles:_ I do. But he loves it. And now he’s moping. How did you get your tattoo? Wolfsbane ink?  
 _Derek:_ NO  
 _Derek:_ You just have to burn the skin on top of it. Use a blowtorch, but make sure to tie him up before. The pain will be more than anything he has ever felt. He’ll probably pass out at some point.  
 _Stiles:_ Holy god.  
 _Derek:_ I can help, if you want.  
 _Stiles:_ No, it’s fine. I’ll do it. For my best bro. Anything for my best bro.  
 _Derek:_ It’ll be okay. It will hurt, but it won't take long.  
 _Stiles:_ Thanks, Derek.

 _Stiles:_ Scott’s alive.  
 _Derek:_ Allison told me.  
 _Stiles:_ Adorable.

 _Derek:_ Ran into Scott at Big Rico’s. He was very close to asking me to deliver a love letter to Allison.  
 _Derek:_ Is he always like that?  
 _Stiles:_ Yup. No. Wait. Like what?  
 _Derek:_ … Goofily happy in love?  
 _Stiles:_ Nicely put :)). But yes, he’s always like that when he thinks about Allison. Which is 80% of the time.  
 _Derek:_ I pity you.  
 _Stiles:_ I appreciate it. Allison isn’t the same?  
 _Derek:_ Yes she is. Around Lydia. Isaac and I just… smell some things.  
 _Stiles:_ I pity you right back.  
 _Derek:_ At least they’re happy.  
 _Stiles:_ Thank fuck for that.

 _Stiles:_ How are you single?  
 _Stiles:_ Sorry, that came out strong. I just don’t get it.  
 _Stiles:_ You’re good looking and an amazing person. Why are you single?  
 _Derek:_ Because I choose to be.  
 _Stiles:_ Why?  
 _Stiles:_ Feel tree to not answer.  
 _Derek:_ I had three long-term relationships. You know about the first one, Kate burnt my family.   
_Derek:_ Then, a bit before and a bit after Laura died, there was Andrew. Human. He tried to kill Isaac because I was spending too much time with him.  
 _Derek:_ A few months back, there was Jennifer. She was a druid, and insane. She, also, tried to kill my pack, in order to increase her powers.  
 _Derek:_ The kind of trust you need in a real relationship doesn’t come easy to me anymore.  
 _Stiles:_ Shit. I don’t know what to say to that.  
 _Derek:_ Say you understand.  
 _Stiles:_ I do. I really do, of course. I’d say I’m sorry you had to go through all of that, but I know it doesn’t mean anything.  
 _Stiles:_ So I’ll just say that I hope you find someone you can trust. When you’re ready.  
 _Derek:_ Thank you. What about you?  
 _Stiles:_ What about me?  
 _Derek:_ Why are you single?  
 _Stiles:_ I’m weird.  
 _Derek:_ That’s not an explanation.  
 _Stiles:_ Most people don’t like weird. And the ones who do, either end up being douchebags, or I end up not liking them.  
 _Derek:_ You’re still young.  
 _Stiles:_ Yes, grandfather :|  
 _Derek:_ You still have time to find someone.  
 _Stiles:_ Or I still have time for them to find me:)

 _Derek:_ Do you find the angels weird? Out of the ordinary? Are the angels a normal occurrence in Night Vale?  
 _Stiles:_ Old woman Josie’s angels?  
 _Derek:_ There’s others?  
 _Stiles:_ No, just those.  
 _Stiles:_ No, they’re not normal. They’re just here.  
 _Derek:_ And you’re fine with that?  
 _Stiles:_ Yes?  
 _Derek:_ Aren’t you curious? How did they get here? Why are they here? What are they made of? Why are they giving off radiation? Why are they at Josie’s?  
 _Stiles:_ I’m sorry I don’t have the answer you need.  
 _Derek:_ I’m sorry I don’t have any answers. It all feels useless.  
 _Stiles:_ What?  
 _Derek:_ What we’re doing here. It’s pointless.  
 _Stiles:_ It’s not. I assure you, it’s not.  
 _Derek:_ It feels pointless.  
 _Stiles:_ We can’t have this conversation over texts. I sent Lydia to talk some sense into you.

 _Derek:_ Lydia yelled at me for 20 minutes straight.  
 _Stiles:_ Did it work?  
 _Derek:_ Yes.  
 _Stiles:_ Good.  
 _Derek:_ Thank you.  
 _Stiles:_ I didn’t do anything :)  
 _Derek:_ You did. You always do.  
 _Stiles:_ That is true.

 _Stiles:_ What does the triskele mean for you?  
 _Derek:_ Alpha, beta, omega. It’s a reminder than an Alpha can fall to beta and that an omega can rise to being an Alpha. _  
Stiles: _ How does an Alpha fall to beta?  
 _Derek:_ There are a few ways.  
 _Derek:_ What do the tentacles mean to you?  
 _Stiles:_ I don’t think that’s a conversation we should have over texts.   
_Stiles:_ I promise I will tell you sometime, thought.  
 _Derek:_ I’ll hold you up to that.

-

The next time Derek sees Stiles, it’s at the lab. They were all working, listening to Stiles’ show on the radio. He cut it short, presenting the weather, but not coming back to talk after it, like he usually did. Derek found it weird, and he was preparing to text Stiles, to ask him if something was wrong, when the man in question came barging through the doors of the lab, huge grin on his face, followed closely by his father, who was in his work clothes and supported a much more neutral expression.

‘Hello, wolves and ladies!’, Stiles grinned, making his way to Derek’s desk and leaning on it.

Derek glared at him, but didn’t say anything. He turned to the Sheriff.

‘Is something wrong?’

‘No. Yes. I don’t know’, the sheriff sighed, frustrated.

‘Come on pops, use your words’, Stiles snickered, which earned him a glare from both Derek and his father.

‘Look’, the older man leveled Derek with a look. ‘We have in custody a local drug dealer that we’ve been trying to catch for years. But he’s not talking. At all, he’s not saying anything, no matter who goes in to interrogate him. The man even kept quiet when we put a hooded figure in the interrogation room with him.’

The Sheriff looked frustrated, and tired, and Derek didn’t understand why Stiles seemed so happy, why he was jumping on his heels and why he was grinning, looking between his father and the Alpha.

‘I need your help’, the Sheriff sighed, looking at Derek with a cautious expression.

He put down the tablet he was still holding on to, and squared his shoulders, not getting out of his chair just yet. ‘How could I help?’, he frowned.

‘You could come to the station, interrogate him.’

Derek blinked. ‘I’m a scientist, I know very little about interrogation techniques.’

‘You’re also a werewolf’, Stiles grinned. ‘Ya know, with claws and fangs and red glow sticks for eyes’, he explained, moving his hand and gesturing in sinc with his words.

Derek turned to the Sheriff. ‘You want me to scare him into confessing?’

‘Yes’, the man sighed. ‘I really wouldn’t do this, but I’m desperate. We’ve been trying to catch him for years, and we always got close, but it was never enough. And now, if he doesn’t confess to a number of murders we know he committed, then all we’ll have on him will be possession, so he’d be out of jail in 10 years, tops.’

‘May I ask something?’, Isaac asked, taking a step towards the Sheriff. ‘Why didn’t you get Scott to do it? He’s an Alpha too, and you know him better than Derek.’

‘I was going to’, the man nodded, than glared at his son.

‘But I reasoned with him’, Stiles explained, ‘told him that Scott wouldn’t get a confession, because even when he’s trying to be all evill and grrr, he still looks like a goddamn puppy. Am I right, Allison?’, he turned to her, winking.

Allison blushed and kicked Stiles in the shin, ignoring his wailing protests, and turned back to her work, without sparing any of them a second glance.

‘So you want Derek because his resting face looks like a murderer’, Isaac nodded.

Stiles wanted to respond, but The Sheriff cut him off. ‘No, I want Derek because Scott does look like a puppy, even when he’s wolfed out. Sorry, kid’, he turned towards the Alpha, ‘but your transformation is a lot more terrifying.’

Derek grinned at that and stood up from his chair. ‘I’ll take that as a compliment, sir. And I’ll be glad to assist in any way I can, but, I don’t understand. How will it work?’

‘How will what work?’, Stiles frowned.

‘Nobody will know’, the Sheriff said, reading Derek’s thoughts. ‘I promised you nobody would find out about you and your pack, and I stand by that promise. Once you’re in the interrogation room, the cameras will be shut down. They won’t come back until your face is back to normal and the guy’s writing his confession.’

‘But will it still be admissible in court?’, Lydia asked. ‘If it’s not a police man or a detective taking the confession?’

‘Yes, I have people who owe me favors.’, the Sheriff smiled.

‘In this town, if the Sheriff says it’s so, then it’s so’, Stiles smiled softly, but Derek could hear it in his voice, how proud he was of his father. ‘Plus, everybody knows this guy is all sorts of levels of bad news. They’re just going to be happy he’s locked up, nobody’s gonna care how he got there.’

‘Okay’, Derek nodded. ‘Good enough for me. Let’s go.’

-

They didn’t go to the Police Station Ship that levitates in the air above Night Vale, but to a house at the end of the town, the Sheriff explaining how the interrogation rooms had to be earth-bound, because civilians weren’t allowed on the Ship, for security reasons.

After Derek went in the interrogation room alone, the Sheriff and Stiles remaining behind the mirror, he took a seat in front of the dealer and flashed his eyes. He grinned, and his teeth lengthened, the suspect’s heart beat speeding up. Derek casually brought his hands to rest on the table, tapping his claws on the cold, metal surface.

‘What are you?’, the man asked.

Derek winked and let the transformation take place, ears lengthening, hair appearing and, much to his constant annoyance, eyebrows disappearing. The suspect screamed and fell to the ground, making his way to the corner of the room, as far away from Derek as possible. The wolf didn’t move towards him, he simply turned around on his chair and watched him.

The suspect kept screaming, so Derek started growling. After a couple of minutes, the drug lord asked for a pen and a piece of paper, saying he’d confess to everything.

Derek tuned back to his human self, and smirked, looking towards the mirror. ‘Pens are illegal. But I’m sure they’ll find some way to get your confession.’

The Sheriff entered then, a grinning Stiles following him closely. He and Stiles remained in the interrogation room, leaning on a wall, as the suspect began writing his confession on a tablet.

‘Should we be in here?’, Derek whispered to Stiles.

‘No. But we won’t tell if you don’t.’, he giggled.

Derek spent the rest of the time in the interrogation room just basking in the warmth coming from Stiles’ body. It’s been a while since they’ve seen each other, and Derek realized he missed Stiles. Sure, they texted every day, but it wasn’t the same. He missed Stiles’ frantic movements and twitching hands, the sparkles in his eyes and the gravity defying hair. He missed Stiles’ laugh, his cherry cigarettes and his questionable fashion sense.

As soon as he realized that, he slowly turned his head towards the man, to better assess his outfit. Stiles was wearing a pair of black skinny jeans, a bright pink t-shirt, and over it, a fishnet vest. He was wearing his turquoise glasses and a pair of yellow sneakers. The tattoos were, as always, giving the impression that they were moving, whenever Derek saw them in the corner of his eye or wasn’t focusing on them.

‘What?’, Stiles asked softly, making Derek’s eyes move up to meet his. ‘Why are you staring?’

Derek noticed the flush on his face, and after being caught looking, he was sure his face was heated, as well. He ignored it.

‘It would be an interesting experience, seeing the inside of your closet’, he whispered, inching closer to Stiles, not wanting to disturb the Sheriff.

‘Are you judging me?’, Stiles asked, hand coming towards his chest, a fake hurt expression on his face.

‘Nope’, Derek grinned, ‘Just stating the facts.’

‘Hmmm’, Stiles hummed, and brushed his pinky finger over Derek’s knuckles. ‘How about a trade? I’ll show you my closet and I’ll even let you pick out an outfit for me to wear that day, if…’, he narrowed his eyes and stepped even closer to Derek, they faces incredibly close now.

‘If?’, Derek asked, and Stiles eyes skipped down to his lips for a beat.

‘If you proof read my wolfstiary.’

That had Derek bringing his head back in confusion. ‘Your… wolfstiary?’

‘It’s like a bestiary, but only about wolves.’

When Derek still didn’t say anything, looking at Stiles in disbelief, the man rolled his eyes. ‘Yes, I wrote down everything I learned about werewolves, ever since Scott got bitten. It’s not that long, really. About 100 pages, but you know, only wolf stuff. The other stuff are about 200 pages.’

‘And you want me to proof read it?’, Derek asked, still looking unconvinced.

‘Yeah. You can, you know, tell me where I’ve made a wrong assumption. You know a lot more than Scott and I do. And you can like, add things to it and stuff. It’ll be like we co-wrote it.’

Derek blinked.

‘Look’, Stiles sighed, intertwining his pinky with Derek’s, much to the wolf’s surprise, even though he controlled himself into not showing anything. ‘You’d be helping a lot.’, Stiles continued in a soft tone. ‘Not just Scott and I, but a lot of other people. I talk with other packs, there are forums and chat rooms, and I’m always collecting new information, even though these days, there’s not so much of it. But, if I update this thing, your work on it will help a lot of poor souls, just like Scott and I were when this all started. Of course, nobody will ever know it was us, dad will make sure of that.’

This whole conversation was held in whispers, the Sheriff and the drug dealer not throwing them a glance. Derek’s heart beat sped up the moment Stiles’ skin touched his, even if it was just on such a small surface. When he managed to find his voice, he smiled at Stiles.

‘Of course I’ll do it, sure. I was just… uhm… a bit surprised that you actually took the time to do that.’

Stiles shrugged. ‘I figured it’ll help on the long run. Plus, I don’t sleep much, so nights tend to get boring, lonely and long.’

At that confession, Derek moved his hand, tightening his hold on Stiles’ finger, just a bit. Stiles looked down at their hands and his eyes winded.

‘Did I do that? I didn’t notice doing that.’, he whispered, not moving his eyes.

Derek chuckled and ignored the blush that crept on his cheeks, setting for watching the one on Stiles’.

‘Do you do that often?’, he teased. ‘Randomly touch people without realizing it?’

Stiles opened his mouth, but he didn’t say anything. Then, he closed it and repeated the action, to Derek’s amusement. In the end, he sighed and let go of Derek’s finger.

‘I’d like to say no, but I’d probably be lying.’

Derek smiled, but before he could answer, the Sheriff draws their attention by cuffing the drug dealer and walking him out of the room.

They said their goodbyes, and Derek headed back to the lab, reminding Stiles to e-mail him the wolfstiary.

-

Hours later, when Stiles is on the radio, taking a good 15 good minutes to talk about how a human body has involuntary reactions, like blushing or sneezing or twitching, and about how they’re connected to the subconscious, Isaac throws a towel at Derek’s head.

‘What happened? What did he do?’, he asks, excitement and curiosity written all over his face.

Derek just smiles and shrugs.                                            

-

Derek will never forget the day the sandstorm hit Night Vale. Not because of the sandstorm itself, which was a terrifying happening all on its own, but because of old woman Josie’s runestones and Stiles’ reaction to them.

They all heard the broadcast, because the whole pack was in the lab, working on different things. They weren’t concerned about the sandstorm, it seemed to be a normal occurrence in a desert town. That was, until Stiles’ show started.

The moment he said _kill your double_ , a shiver ran through Derek’s body. He ignored it, blaming it on the storm and his heightened senses. Stiles advised everyone to try and make peace with their double, and then, minutes after, talked about how Scott killed his. But when he heard Stiles going into the portal created in his studio, Derek panicked.

He panicked instantly and he was halfway through the lab, going towards the door, when Isaac tackled him to the ground, screaming about how he can’t go into the storm. Then, Lydia directed their attention back to the radio transmission, where Kevin from Desert Bluffs was as perplexed as they were.

Luckily, Stiles returned soon enough, and Derek calmed down, sending him a text asking if he was okay. Stiles answered quickly, even if he was still on air.

But when the day was over and the storm had passed, Derek was left feeling twitchy and energetic. That was why, come 2 am, he was near the school parking lot, which was on the trail he usually followed on his jog through town. He wasn’t expecting to see Stiles there, in shorts and a white t-shirt, with blood on his knuckles and a bat in his hands, fighting off…  someone who looked likes Stiles.

His double, Derek’s mind supplied. But he realized quickly who was the original one, because the double didn’t smell like Stiles, the double didn’t smell like anything. He shifted instantly and started running towards the two of them, but half way there, he was stopped by an invisible shield. Looking down, he saw that he was trapped in a ring of mountain ash, that appeared out of nowhere.

‘It’s okay, Derek’, real-Stiles yelled, not once stopping the fight. ‘I’ve got this, I have to do this. _I_ have to be the one to do it, but it’s okay, I can do this. I’ll finish this abomination soon enough.’

At that, the double stopped and grinned, staring at Stiles. Derek saw absolutely nothing in its eyes, they were cold and lifeless. It frightened him, but Stiles saw an opportunity in the double’s hesitation, so he swung his bat, hard, right at the double’s head. It fell to the ground, and Stiles started screaming, but he didn’t stop bashing its head to the pavement.

When the double stopped moving, Stiles threw the bat away and fell to his knees. He didn’t stop screaming, and he was pulling at his hair with his bruised knuckles. The mountain ash disappeared, so Derek ran to Stiles, kneeling in front of him, taking his hands in his, just so he can stop him from ripping all his hair out.

‘Hey, hey, look at me, Stiles, look at me!’.

The moment Derek said his name, Stiles stopped screaming and took his hands away from the wolf’s hold. He looked so scared and exhausted, and he was crying silently, so Derek didn’t say anything when Stiles collapsed to his chest, fisting his hands into the wolf’s shirt. Derek hugged him, and held him until he calmed down.

‘Is your car here?’, he asked softly when Stiles pulled away from his embrace.

Stiles nodded, pointing to an old blue jeep.

‘Give me your keys, I’ll drive you home.’ Stiles didn’t protest.

He was silent the whole drive, and it was very odd for Derek, to not hear Stiles speak, but his heartbeat was steady and he wasn’t crying anymore, so Derek didn’t push. But he didn’t leave after he got to Stiles’ house either.

He helped him open the door and stood in the doorway of the bathroom as Stiles washed his hands, scrubbing viciously at the blood. He was grunting and gasping every once in a while, and when Derek realized he was in pain, he put a hand on Stiles’ neck and took away some of it. Stiles watched him through the mirror, mesmerized as black veins formed on Derek’s hand.

‘You didn’t have to do that’, Stiles whispered.

‘Where else are you hurt?’, Derek asked gently, taking his hand away. ‘Besides your hands?’

Stiles shook his head. ‘Bruised ribs and a scraped knee.’

‘Do you want me to call Melissa?’

‘No, it’s not bad, I’m okay. I’ll just take a shower and calm down.’

‘Do you want me to call you dad?’

‘I’m sure he’s already on his way’, Stiles smiled.

‘Do you want me to call Scott?’

‘No’, he answered a bit too forcefully. ‘He’s with Allison, let them have some fun.’ At Derek’s raised eyebrow, Stiles sighed and continued. ‘He over reacts, sometimes, most of the time. I get it, he’s an Alpha, it’s in his nature but sometimes it’s … suffocating, you know? I’ll talk to him tomorrow.’

Derek didn’t get to answer, because he heard the front door slam shut and the Sheriff yelling for his son. Stiles was out of the bathroom and running towards his dad in a heartbeat. Derek stayed behind, giving them some privacy, acting like he didn’t hear Stiles’ crying whispers of _daddy_ and the Sheriff gently shushing him.

After they seemed to settle down, Derek made his way out of the bathroom and as soon as the Sheriff saw him, he breathed a sigh of relief.

‘Can you stay the night? I have to go back to the station and deal with all the doubles.’, he asked Derek, leaving him shocked and speechless. But when he heard how Stiles’ heart rate picked up, and saw how he was nervously chewing on his nails, Derek just nodded and straightened his shoulders.

‘Yeah. What… uh… how are you handling the doubles?’

‘Cleanup, mostly’, the Sheriff sighed. ‘We have to gather whoever is left alive in the interrogation rooms and do a full blood analysis to confirm it’s the original. Thankfully, there don’t seem to be that many attacks happening, but I still have to go.’

Stiles started to say something, but his father waved him off. ‘I know it’s you kid, I watched the footage myself.’

‘The doubles don’t smell’, Derek said, startling the two men.

‘What?’, the Sheriff raised an eyebrow.

‘They don’t have a scent. Every human has a certain scent, and every werewolf too. Stiles’ double… It had absolutely no scent. At all, it didn’t smell human, it didn’t smell like anything.’

‘So I can get Scott to tell me who’s human.’

‘It’ll be a lot faster’, Stiles nods.

Derek thinks he should offer his nose too, but one look at Stiles and he dismisses the thought.

‘I’ll call Isaac’, is what he says. ‘Have him meet you there?’

‘Thank you, son.’, the Sheriff smiles, then turns to Stiles. ‘I’ll talk to you in the morning, okay? Get some rest, kid.’

They hug one more time, and after the Sheriff closed the door behind him, Derek was left standing in the living room, with a very nervous and anxious Stiles. He took a step closer to him, and put a hand on his shoulder, squeezing gently.

‘Whatever you’re thinking about, stop. Okay? Just stop. Go, take a shower, take care of your wounds. And if you want to talk when you come out, I’ll be here. If not, I’ll just let you sleep, okay? Whatever you need.’

Stiles just nodded a couple of times, before taking a final step towards Derek and hugging him again, gingerly bringing his hands around the wolf’s waist, but holding him tight. He whispered a barely audible ‘thank you’, but Derek didn’t answer him, he just put his hands around Stiles and held onto him for a few seconds.

When he got out of the shower, 10 minutes later, wearing a pair of red shorts and a black t-shirt, Stiles didn’t say anything. He just handed Derek a pair of pajama bottoms and a tank top, a blanket and a pillow, and pointed towards the couch.

He took them and smiled gratefully, but he was still twitchy and concerned.

‘Don’t you want to eat something?’, he asked, as softly as he could.

‘I just want to sleep’, Stiles shook his head and placed a hand on the wolf’s arm. His skin was hot to the touch, but it was still pale and he looked exhausted, even his tattoos seemed tired, still and not giving the impression they were moving, like they always did.

‘Thank you’, the man whispered, staring into Derek’s eyes, radiating a large scale of emotions that made the wolf’s throat dry. So he took a deep breath, placed his hand over Stiles’ and squeezed gently.

‘Go to bed. I’ll be right here.’

With one more nod, Stiles turned around and went upstairs, to his bedroom.

Derek knew he wasn’t going to sleep, because he still had a lot of energy. So he took some time in doing a quick workout, on the living room floor. Half an hour later, he changed into the clothes Stiles gave him and settled on the couch. Stiles wasn’t asleep, Derek could still hear him shuffling between the sheets.

A hot flash spread from Derek’s stomach to his heart at that though, imagining Stiles rustling in his bed, the tattoos against the sheets, the flush of Stiles’ skin… Derek quickly ignored it, this was not the time or place for him to be thinking about Stiles naked.

Twenty minutes later, Stiles’ heartbeat was slow and steady, so Derek figured that the adrenaline wore off and he finally fell asleep. The wolf fell asleep too, quickly after, absently counting the beats of Stiles’ heart and looking at his mother’s paintings.

He wasn’t asleep for long, but he woke with a start, gasping for air. Confused, Derek looked around the room, but realized nothing was wrong, everything was how he left it. Then, he heard Stiles. He was still in his bedroom, and still asleep, but his heart was beating fast, and he was moving around in his bed. Derek didn’t think much, he just got up from the couch and made his way upstairs.

He opened the door and took a few seconds to take in Stiles’ bedroom. It was surprisingly simple, quite bare, in comparison to the living room. Everything was in dark tones, the floor and furniture were made out of wood, a dark and warm cherry brown. There was a big window on the opposite wall of the door, with the bed underneath. The whole right wall was covered in a wardrobe, with sliding doors and a big mirror on one of them. On the opposite wall, there was a small bookshelf, that seemed to be holding more action figures and pictures than books, and a small desk. The only spots of color in the whole room were the purple sheets on Stiles’ bed, a pair of red jeans forgotten on the floor in front of the dresser, and the painting that was hung on the wall above the desk. It was clearly made by Stiles’ mother, in bright tones of red and orange, and Derek will swear to the end of his days that it’s a picture of him and Laura in wolf form, running through Central Park.

Derek was startled and brought back to reality by Stiles whimpering, mumbling something about ‘red on white’, followed with a bunch of pleads and frightened swears. It breaks Derek's heart, so he tries to wake Stiles up, putting a hand on his shoulder and shaking him a bit. But it doesn’t work, Stiles doesn’t wake up, he keeps whimpering and swearing. Derek tries calling his name, but all Stiles does is turn around and fist his hand into Derek’s t-shirt. He’s still asleep so Derek runs a hand through the man's hair, using his other one to draw pain from Stiles. Eventually, after a few minutes, he settles down. He doesn’t wake up, but his heart rate slows and his breathing evens out.

Stiles doesn’t let go of the wolf's shirt, and Derek is too tired and concerned to do anything about it. So he just lies down next to Stiles, keeping a hand on his neck, until he falls asleep too.

-

Derek woke up slowly. He remembered quickly enough where he was and why he was there, and he was thankful to discover that he and Stiles have slept next to each other, not breaking any moral line. He slowly opened his eyes and saw Stiles next to him on the bed, sitting up and gaping at him, blushing furiously. His hair was a mess, his eyes were still red and his mouth was hanging open.

‘You’re in my bed. Why are you in my bed?’, Stiles asked in a high pitched voice.

‘Hmpft’, Derek groaned. He took a few seconds to wake up a bit more, then he tried again, but he didn’t move.

‘How are you feeling?’                      

‘Okay?’, he asked.

Derek snorted. ‘How are your bruises?’

‘Uh…’, Stiles blinked, then seemed to remember what happened the night before. He got out of bed and stretched, grinning when he was done. ‘I’m okay. The pain is manageable.’

‘Good, good’, Derek sighed and hugged the closest pillow he found.

‘Why are you in my bed?’, Stiles asked again, a few moments later, but it was calmer this time.

‘You had a nightmare’, Derek said over a yawn, sitting up in the bed, even though it was clear he didn’t want to. ‘I calmed you down, but you grabbed me and wouldn’t let go.’

‘Oh’, Stiles said, taking a deep breath. ‘Sorry.’

‘No problem’, Derek smiled. ‘Make me coffee and we’re even.’

‘You’re not a morning person.’, Stiles grinned.

‘I hate mornings’, Derek groaned, getting out of bed and stretching a bit. ‘No, I love mornings, some mornings, I just wished they’d start later.’

Stiles laughed, and Derek smiled too, but they were interrupted by Derek’s phone ringing in the living room. He rushed to pick it up, but spared a second to put a hand on Stiles’ shoulder on his way out of the room.

‘It’s Isaac’, Derek yelled to Stiles, before picking up.

‘Isaac. Is everything alright? Did everything go well at the station? How are you? How is everyone?’

‘Whoa, kid’, Derek heard the Sheriff say over the line, just as Stiles was coming down the stairs.

‘Sorry, Sheriff.’

‘It’s fine. Is Stiles up yet? His phone is off.’

‘I’ll put him on.’

‘Hey, Dad!’, Stiles sais cheery, once he got the phone.

Then, he was silent for a couple of seconds, nodding and smiling every now and then.

‘Derek? How about I give you that coffee at the diner, with everyone else?’

‘Sure’, Derek smiled. ‘I have to stop by the house and change, though.’

Stiles grinned, and resumed talking to his dad. ‘We’ll be there in one hour and we’ll pick up the girls, cause we’ll stop by there anyway, Derek needs to change. Okay, bye.’

He handed the phone back and all but run up the stairs. ‘I’ll shower really fast.’

-

Stiles showered quickly, and when he came downstairs, he was wearing a black pair of skinny jeans, a gray tshirt and a red hoodie. They didn’t talk much on the ride to Derek’s house, other than the wolf giving Stiles directions. Once they got there, Allison and Lydia quickly dragged Stiles away, wanting to give him a tour of the house, so Derek spent a little longer in the shower than he would normally have, absently listening to them laughing.

He was barely done putting on a simple black t-shirt over his jeans when Lydia came barging into his bedroom.

‘Come on, we’re gonna be late.’

‘Yes, Mistress.’, he deadpanned, grabbing his wallet and phone from the bedside table, taking some time to take out his leather jacket from the closet.

When he stepped outside of his room, Lydia was nowhere to be found, but Stiles was there, watching him with a curious expression.

‘Doesn’t she knock?’, he whispered.

‘If there’s one thing you need to know about werewolves’, Derek said, motioning for Stiles to start moving downstairs, ‘is that they have no sense of privacy when they’re in their den.’

‘I know that’, Stiles frowned some more. ‘I had to put a lock on the bathroom door because of Scott. But Lydia’s not a werewolf.’

‘No, she just lives with two.’, Derek answered, easily.

‘I don’t get it’, Stiles pouted.

‘When you spend enough time with a person, you tend to borrow some of their mannerism. People do it too, but for wolves it’s a bit more…’

‘Overdone?’, Stiles raised an eyebrow.

Derek shrugged. ‘It’s pack.’

‘Huh’, Stiles said after a beat, when they finally made it downstairs in the living room, to find the girls waiting for them to go.

‘Are you done making yourself pretty?’, Lydia asked, glaring at Derek. ‘Can we go, now? I’m starving.’

He didn’t even bother responding, he just went to the door and held it open for her. She kissed his cheek as she went out, and Allison did the same, adding a giggled ‘But Derek’s always pretty’.

Stiles laughed as he got out of the house, but he did ruffle Derek’s hair. The wolf growled playfully, and that had Stiles laughing even louder.

-

Over breakfast, Derek realized something, something that had the potential to be something important. This night they’ve spent together, even if it was just innocent sleeping next to one another, taking comfort in each other’s presence, it changed something in his relationship with Stiles. A button has been pressed, and neither of them seemed to notice when they were doing it, but they were touching each other a lot more than before.

They didn’t jerk back when their knees accidentally touched under the table, they even took the decision to sit next to each other, without talking about it beforehand. They’d bump shoulders when they would laugh, they’d playfully hit each other when they’d bicker. Derek spent half of the time in the diner resting his arm on the backrest, fingers brushing Stiles’ shoulder every now and then, and Stiles drank half of Derek’s coffee, after he finished his cup. There was no more hesitation and no more awkwardness. And for once, Derek didn’t feel sick when someone out of his pack touched him. 

Derek noticed the change. He had no idea if Stiles did. There were a lot of people at their table, but Isaac seemed to be the only one who noticed something was different, judging by the small wink he threw Derek when they locked eyes. He didn’t say anything, or react in any way, and Isaac rolled his eyes, in the end. It made Derek laugh.

He laughed even harder when Stiles asked him why he was laughing. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Guys, I don't know when I'll be able to post the next chapter. My laptop's going crazy and I have to get it into service. So I don't know when I'll be able to write or post. But it shouldn't be too long? Thanks for understanding :).  
> (now I just have to think about how to end this. *loading*)


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Ghosts and changes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I am sorry this is short, and I am sorry it took me so long. I got sick, and I still am, but I kind of actually like the first part of this chapter. Cause, feels. I think there's only going to be another chapter left after this. I'll try to write it as soon as possible. So if there's something you _really_ want to see in this, now is the time to tell me. Hugs and kisses.

In retrospect, thinking back at that day, Derek was proud of himself for not freaking out and having a mental breakdown the moment he woke up one morning and saw his mother sitting next to him on the bed.

He stood up in the center of his bed, wide awake in an instant, feet tangled in his comforter. Derek kept his breath and he looked at her. It was his mother, Talia Hale, his Alpha. She looked exactly like he remembered her, dark hair and dark eyes, laughter lines and a soft smile on her lips. She was wearing light blue jeans, and they were already faded in the knees, and she was wearing her favorite sweater, the green one Derek remembers was his father’s. She’s barefoot and her toenails are painted bright red.

He breathes her in, smelling things he hasn’t smelled in a decade. It’s not just her, but also the lingering scent of his family. His sisters, his father, his uncle and her wife, their children, his grandparents. Pack, Derek’s mother always smelled like her whole pack.

‘Mom’, he manages to whisper when his heart convinces his brain that it is really her. It’s small and so desperate, and his heart is breaking into a million pieces, over and over again, 10 years after. But this time, it’s okay, because his mother gets closer and puts a hand on the back of his neck, drawing him closer. Derek buries his face into her chest, hands fisting in her sweater, feeling like he’s holding on for dear life. He’s crying and he’s not breathing properly, but she’s warm and she smells like the forest and coffee and like his father. She smells like home and Derek can’t stop crying.

Isaac barges into the room, then. Talia lets go of Derek and looks over to Isaac, who’s standing there, frozen in place, heart bear erratic and tears on his face. Derek gasps when he sees Laura behind Isaac, soft and gentle like she always was, wearing one of Derek’s old Metallica t-shirts and a pair of sweats, her usual sleeping attire. She smiles and Derek can’t help but smile back.

Isaac launches himself to the bed, then, getting as close to Derek as he can, whimpering when Talia brings her arms around the both of them, hugging them as lovingly as only a mother can. Laura makes her way to the bed too, sitting down at their backs, resting her head on Derek’s shoulder and hand buried in Isaac’s curls.

‘My beautiful boys’, Talia whispers. ‘Oh, what a terrible life happened to you.’

Derek doesn’t know how long they stay like that, crying and hugging the dead. After a while, Talia lets them go, and Laura shimmies her way next to her, both of them standing in front of the boys, in the center of the bed, just like they did when Isaac first moved in with them.

Laura takes Derek’s hand in hers and he instantly brings it to his mouth, kissing it and taking comfort in the warmth it brings. He whimpers and Laura chuckles, calling him a big baby. He doesn’t know what to say, what to do, so he just holds her hand tighter and tells his sister and his mother how much he misses them, every hour of every day.

They start talking, then. Talia, mostly, with Laura adding explanations or comments here and there. They tell Derek and Isaac how proud they are of them, for being so strong and for creating a pack. A strong and loving pack, that holds their own and helps those who are in need. How they are good boys, how they didn’t deserve everything that happened to them, not the fire and not all the people that hurt them after.

‘It’s not your fault, Der’, Laura had said, curling up next to him, with her head in his lap. ‘Nothing was your fault. Not Kate, not Jennifer, not Andrew, not Isaac’s father, not anything. It wasn’t your fault and you need to understand that, Derek. I know you’re stubborn, but trust me when I say that none of it was your fault.’

‘You need to move on, Derek’, his mother smiled. ‘You have, to some extension, I know you have, you built a pack and you got away from New York. But you’re not going to find the answers you need here, not the ones _you_ need in order to move on with your life. You’re young, pup, you have a whole life ahead of you and it can be wonderful. You just need to let go.’

‘How can he do that?’, Isaac whispered, leaning down and resting his head in Talia’s lap. ‘How can we do that? We can’t let you go.’

‘I’m not asking you to.’, she smiled, petting his hair. ‘We’re not asking you to forget about us, we’re asking you to…’

‘Let them in’, Laura smiled. ‘Both of you keep your hearts locked away, you barely let Allison and Lydia in. You’re not broken, boys. You both have big hearts that are just waiting for the right people.’

‘Trust is hard, mom.’, Derek whispered.

‘I know, Derek.’, she smiled. ‘But you deserve to be happy.’

‘You did the right thing, you know’, Laura leveled him with a look. ‘Coming here. The way we see it, Night Vale is exactly what you needed, when you needed it. And now, you need to let them in. Stiles and Scott, the Sheriff and Melissa.’

Derek’s heart skipped a beat, and so did Isaac’s. They both looked at Talia.

‘They need you too’, she smiled. ‘Scott needs as much information as he can, and Stiles needs an anchor. They can be as good for you as you can be for them.’

‘I don’t understand’, Isaac said, vocalizing Derek’s thoughts.

‘I know you don’t’, Talia smiled. ‘But you do trust us. And you want to be happy.’

‘Let them in’, Laura ruffled Derek’s hair. ‘You deserve it.’

After that, Talia started telling them stories. Things Derek should have known before he became an Alpha. He and Isaac stood and listened to the two women they both missed the most, taking them in, trying to remember everything and, for the first time in years, feeling like they have a home again.

When they said they had to go, Derek started crying again. He and Isaac both. They held them close, as close as they could, bruising their skin and begging them to stay. Of course, they couldn’t.

Laura kissed Derek’s cheek and smiled into his neck. ‘You’re loved, Derek. Down here and up there. We’re all watching and we love you.’

‘Be happy, pup.’, Talia kissed his hand. ‘You’re an Alpha in all the ways you should be and I am so proud of you, me and your father both. You’ve grown up to be a great man and you deserve to be happy.’

With a burst of cold wind, they were gone, and Derek and Isaac were left crying and breathless. Derek hugged his beta, then, as hard as he could without breaking any bones. He breathed him in and together, they managed to get a hold of themselves.

‘We should check on the girls’, Isaac said after a while, wiping his face with a towel.

Derek nodded and when they made their way downstairs, the girls were in the kitchen, making peanut butter and jelly sandwiches. They were both sad, their eyes were puffy and red, makeup long gone, and Lydia was shaking, slightly. But they both seemed calmer, more content.

When they saw the boys, Lydia threw herself in Derek’s arms and Allison wrapped her arms around Isaac’s waist.

‘Are you gonna be okay?’, Derek asked them.

‘Are you?’, Lydia responded.

‘Eventually’, Isaac sighed.

‘It was my dad’, Allison said. ‘And Lydia’s sister.’

‘Talia and Laura’, the beta nodded.

‘I’m happy’, Allison smiled after a while, letting go of Isaac. She was still crying, but her smile was blinding.

Derek didn’t know what to say to that because, after everything, that’s how he was feeling, too. Not happy, not completely, but he felt like he could be happy, in a future that was now closer, not impossible. So he smiled at his pack and shoved a whole peanut butter sandwich in his mouth, making them all laugh.

-

Late that night, Derek called Stiles. It wasn’t something that they did, they didn’t call each other just to talk. But Derek didn’t really think about it, he just picked up his phone and the moment Stiles answered, whispering a fond _hey, Derek_ , he took a deep breath and started talking.

Stiles and his father were together when the ghosts appeared. They saw Claudia, Stiles’ mother, and of course there were a lot of tears involved. But in the end, the experience left Stiles and the Sheriff feeling as happy as Derek felt.

‘I don’t know why it happened’, Stiles laughed at one point during their long conversation. ‘I don’t understand how it happened, but I… I don’t care, Derek. I don’t fucking care about the how’s or why’s because I got to see her again. And I got to smell her perfume and kiss her cheek, hold her hand and hear her laugh, I saw her kiss dad again and I don’t fucking care about anything else’.

‘I know, Stiles. I feel the same.’

‘Really?’

‘Yes.’, Derek laughed. ‘Don’t get me wrong, I want to know what happened, but…  Do you think we could…  could it happen again?’

Stiles was silent for a few beats. Then, he took a deep breath and answered.

‘There’s no such thing as magic.’

Derek laughed. ‘So it’s not magic that’s making your tattoos move around?’

‘What are you talking about? My tattoos don’t move around. That’s impossible, Derek!’

They talked long into the hours of the morning, both of them laying down in bed, whispering over the darkness, but neither of them willing to sleep.  Stiles talked about his mother and told Derek stories about a 5 year old Stiles rolling around in the mud in the park, and the long baths his mother would take with him after. About the bed time stories she used to read to him and about the first recorder she gave Stiles. And Derek told Stiles about how his family used to meet and run during the full moons, about how Laura used to make him go shopping with her and how much she spoiled him after the fire.

It was then when Derek realized just how much he cared about Stiles. That moment, when he heared Stiles laugh at a memory of his younger self, being happy, even though he was still crying. And his mother’s voice, already mingled with Laura’s, kept ringing in his head, telling him that _You have to let go._

So, Derek made a decision. It didn’t really feel like a decision to him, it just felt like the normal thing to do and the next step in his life. Early in the morning, when he heard Isaac wake up and make his way to the kitchen, he made his way downstairs grinning, startling Isaac.

‘Why are you so happy so early in the morning?’, the beta groaned.

‘I have an idea.’

-

They keep texting, of course they do. But the next time Derek talks with Stiles on the phone, he’s in New York, in the apartment he shares with Isaac, packing up their belongings. Derek talks to Stiles for a while about nothing important, much to his beta’s annoyance.

‘What are you doing? Those are some weird sounds I am hearing’, Stiles asked after a few minutes.

‘Packing cutlery.’

Derek hears Stiles take a sharp intake of breath but it’s a few more seconds before the man says anything. When he talks, it sounds cold and detached.

‘Are you leaving, then?’

‘No, we’ve already left. We’ve been in New York for about a week now.’

‘Oh. Wow. You… You’, Stiles laughs, but it doesn’t sound happy. ‘You asshole.’

Derek doesn’t get a chance to respond to that, because Stiles immediately starts talking fast and his voice just keeps getting louder and louder.

‘You’re an asshole. I can’t believe you left without saying goodbye!’, he shrieks. ‘After everything, you just… you just, what? Packed up and left? What the fuck is wrong with you, Derek? I know, okay, I get it.’, he says in a softer tone that disappears quickly. ‘I know you don’t care that much, but fuck you, we were friends, god damn it. We fought side by side and you looked after me when I was hurt and after everything, after that and everything else, you just left? You’re an asshole. All of you are assholes, what about Allison, huh? Did she leave without saying goodbye to Scott?’

Half way through his rant, Derek understood what was happening. Stiles thought they left Night Vale, for good. That wasn’t true, it was so far away for the truth, it made Derek giggle. As Stiles was getting more and more mad, and Isaac’s jaw was dropping lower and lower, Derek’s laughter got harder to contain.

‘Are you laughing?’, Stiles screeched after a few seconds of being silent.  

‘I’m sorry, Stiles. I just… I assumed Scott would’ve told you by now.’, he took a deep breath and managed to calm down.

‘Tell me what?’, Stiles asked, confused.

‘I talked to him before we left, I had to get his permission.’

‘Permission for what, Derek?’

‘Permission to move to Night Vale. Permanently. Things usually get tricky when there’s more than one Alpha in a territory. I mean, in such a small territory. I’m used to it, of course, having lived in New York all my life. But for Scott, it might take some taking used to.’

‘Really?’, Stiles whispered in awe, and it made Derek smile.

‘Yes. I don’t think there’s going to be any problems, though. He agreed to the pack moving in, and, honestly, he seemed excited. As you said, I do know more about wolves than he does and Alpha or not, he still needs guidance. I’ll be happy to do everything I can.’

Stiles was silent for a few moments, but Derek didn’t mind. By now, he knew how Stiles got, he needed to take a few seconds to clear his head, put his thoughts into order and make sure he didn’t miss anything. In the end, Stiles let out a long breath and spoke in a soft, but embarrassed voice.

‘I’m sorry I yelled at you.’

‘I’m sorry I didn’t tell you the plan’, Derek nodded. ‘It was an impulsive decision, on our part. And, well, I got carried away with looking for apartments, and arranging everything from this end and-‘

‘And sometimes you just forget to text if you’re way too busy or interested in your science.’, Stiles  interrupted, in a resigned tone.

‘I don’t-‘

‘Yes you do’, Stiles laughed. ‘But it’s okay, you see the missed text eventually and answer then. It’s not that bad, really.’

Derek smiled.

‘But what about New York?’

‘It’s just things, Stiles. Objects and a job. My pack’s staying with me. The rest of it is… unimportant.’

‘But, Derek. You lived there your whole life. Your family-‘

‘Is not here anymore’, the wolf interrupted. ‘They’re… wherever I go. Now, I just have my pack. It doesn’t matter where we are, not anymore.’

‘And you’re really gonna help Scott? With all the wolfy business?’

‘I’ll help any way I can. Either it being question answering or claw slashing.’

‘Brains and brawn?’, Stiles chuckles.

‘I am a full package’, Derek agrees, smiling.

‘You’re disgusting.’, Isaac says, startling Derek. ‘Both of you, you’re worse than Allison and Scott.’

‘Neah’, Stiles laughs, loud in Derek’s year. ‘I’m pretty sure Derek doesn’t spend an hour every day talking about my dimples.’

Derek laughs, while Isaac rolls his eyes and throws a fork at him.

-

Two weeks later, they’re all moved in, back to Night Vale. They found apartments in the buildings close to the radio station, Isaac and Derek sharing a two bedroom suite, with a large living room and a nice balcony, and the girls sharing an ever bigger apartment in the next building.

One evening, Derek invited everyone, the Sheriff and Melissa included, to dinner. He didn’t cook anything special, just steakes with fries and a simple chocolate cake, but it was a nice evening. He explained to everyone how he bought the lab and made all the necessary paperwork to open a business, basically getting them all available for hire, for everyone in town who needed lab work done. Thus, they’ll be able to continue the work they have been doing, but also earn enough money to get by.

He didn’t really need it, the money his family left him, and the insurance he received as being the only surviving Hale was more than enough to last him and his pack a life time. But, this way, his pack felt better, knowing they’re not just receiving money while doing nothing.

The Mayor seemed happy about the arrangement, as did the Sheriff. Isaac talked to Deaton and he will be working at the animal clinic too, alongside Scott’s boss, who keeps saying he’s getting old and that he’s glad he found someone young and capable to help him.

It’s the first time Derek actually sees Allison and Scott, together like this, and he can’t stop smiling. They’re disgustingly cute and it’s obvious they care a lot about one another. Stiles catches him looking a few times, but he doesn’t say anything, just snickers and winks at him.

Derek’s having fun, with everyone around. The girls keep making fun of all the ‘manly displays of testosterone’ he and Isaac used to decorate their apartment, the Sheriff keeps calling him ‘kid’ and Melissa hugged him, while insisting on doing the dishes. And all the while, every now and then, his eyes would lock with Stiles’, and they’d both smile. Isaac muttered ‘idiots’ under his breath a few times, but Derek ignored him.

After everyone left for the night, Stiles hung back a bit, fidgeting and giving off a nervous vibe. He picked up his bag and started playing with the zipper.

‘Do you plan on redecorating?’, he asked.

‘Neah’, Isaac answered. ‘We did our bedrooms, but we like the living room as it is. The orange walls are nice. We might get a new couch, though’, he looked at Derek. ‘That thing stinks of fish and it hurts my butt.’

Derek rolled his eyes, but nodded, nonetheless.

‘Good’, Stiles smiled, opening his bag. ‘Then this would look great in the living room.’

He handed Derek a small painting. It was one of his mother’s, in orange, red and gold, with a bit of green. It portrayed two young wolves playing under a bloodshot moon. It could’ve been anyone, but it instantly made Derek think of himself and Isaac, tackling each other in Central Park after the last midterms in their high school career, while waiting on Laura to bring them milkshakes.

‘We can’t take that.’, Derek shook his head. ‘Your mother-‘

‘Would want you to have it’, Stiles smiled. ‘It kinda looks like you, doesn’t it? Look, the smaller wolf even has Isaac’s hair, all curly and golden and shit.’

‘Stiles’, Derek tried again, but Isaac was already reaching for it.

‘Just take the damn painting, Derek.’, he sighed and passed it to Isaac. ‘Thank me, hug me, and be done with it. Take care of it and everyone’s happy.’

Derek nodded and took a quick step towards Stiles, wrapping his arms around the man’s shoulders and ignoring how Stiles was still holding onto his bag with one hand. He placed the other one on Derek’s lower back, and they stayed like that for a few seconds.

‘Thank you, Stiles.’

They pulled away and Stiles grinned. ‘Talk to you later, wolfies!’.

After he closed the door behind him, Derek walked into the living room and saw Isaac moving around books on the shelves they had there, making room for the painting right between their yearbooks and Laura’s old photography books. Isaac turned around, and smiled softly at his Alpha.

‘He’s something else.’

‘That he is.’

‘He cares about you a lot.’

Derek nodded and went over to the couch, turning on the tv.

‘You care about him too.’, Isaac chuckled.

He didn’t bother denying it.

Isaac smirked and left the room.


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> There's a siren and a reveal.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> OH MY GOD it's finally done. I am so sorry this took so long but I couldn't.. uh... writer's block? Or something. TW: drowning and almost dying and cpr and stuff.  
> Anyway, HERE'S THE FINAL CHAPTER. Thank you all for reading it, you're awesome! Constructive criticism is always welcomed, also typo pointing out :).  
> Hugs and kisses, stalk me on [tumblr, Sim.](http://sssssssim.tumblr.com)

‘I have two questions’, Stiles said the moment Derek answered his phone, even though it was 4 am.

‘Well, honestly’, Stiles continued in an urgent tone, ‘it might be more than two questions. Depending on your answers. And I think-‘

‘Stiles’, Derek groaned. ‘It’s the middle of the night. Start talking.’

‘Are you home?’, Stiles asked after he took a deep breath.

‘Yes.’

‘Is Isaac home?’

‘Yes, why?’

‘Do you have any way to contain a werewolf?’

Derek was wide awake instantly.

‘What’s wrong?’

Stiles sighed. ‘Just tell me, can you keep a werewolf inside the apartment without using brute force?’

Derek sighed. ‘I can get Allison to come over with mountain ash. No supernatural creature can pass it.’

‘Okay, do that. We’ll be there in 20.’, Stiles said in a rush, before he hung up.

After a few seconds of staring at his phone in shock and concern, Derek got out of bed, got dressed, and called Allison. He woke Isaac up and made a big pot of strong coffee. A few minutes later, the girls stormed into the apartment, still in their pajamas, with their hair tangled and looking grumpy. But Derek smiled, because Allison had a bag of mountain ash, a crossbow and a few arrows, and Lydia held a gun.

They wanted explanations, but Derek didn’t know anything, so he gave them coffee, fruits and crackers, and paced with them, until Stiles arrived, with Scott towing behind him. Scott seemed tired and disappointed, for some reason, and Stiles was nervous and energetic.

‘What is happening?’, Allison asked, concerned, when she saw Stiles pushing Scott towards the couch, the Alpha collapsing on it, sighing.

‘Mermaid.’, Stiles said, barely spearing her a look, making his way towards Derek and drinking all the coffee he had left in his cup.

‘Not exactly mermaid, though, no, not, like, the Ariel type, no.’, he continued, walking back over to the sleeping form of Scott, gently stroking his hair. ‘A siren, blue and fucking ugly, to be honest, with huge eyes and long, black claws. Yeah, she has big tits and long legs, and her song is somewhat beautiful, I guess, considering it’s compelling straight men and maybe gay women to kill themselves in order to get to her. But her skin is rotting and there is mold all over it and it’s just so disgusting.’

Stiles shakes his head and takes a deep breath, making his way back towards the rest of them.

‘Explain’, Allison demands. ‘Is Scott okay?’

‘Yeah, he’ll be fine once he sleeps it off’, Stiles smiles. ‘I managed to steer him off early on.’

‘Stiles.’, Derek frowns. ‘Sirens live underwater, they don’t go on land, only very, very rarely and even then, they still stick close to water.’

‘Yeah’, he nods.

‘We’re in the middle of the desert.’, Derek says, slowly, getting closer to Stiles.

‘No shit, Sherlock’, the man scoffs. ‘But that didn’t stop a freaking 200 feet wide lake to appear outside of town. And there’s a mermaid in it. Siren. Evil, ugly siren. Thing.’

Derek blinks. ‘A lake appeared.’

‘Yes’, Stiles sighs, resting his head on Derek’s shoulder and closing his eyes. ‘It’s a couple of miles outside of town, so there haven’t been any victims yet, because people have to be close enough to hear her. But Scott picked it up with his wolf hearing.’

‘I haven’t heard anything.’, Derek frowns, absently rubbing circles with his thumb on Stiles’ neck.

‘He was at my place. S’closer to the lake.’

‘So, what, he just ran to her?’, Allison asks.

Stiles nods and breaks away from Derek’s hold. ‘Yeah. Well, no, he didn’t run, he jogged there. That’s why I was able to keep up with him. He was in a trance, though, he didn’t hear a word I was saying.’

‘Then how did you stop him?’, Lydia frowns.

‘I didn’t, at first. Figured I should follow him to the source and see what’s wrong. When we got to the lake, though, and I saw her close to the shore…’, Stiles trains off, shuddering. ‘It’s horrible, really. I’ve seen a bunch of crazy stuff, but this thing’, he looks to Derek, ‘it scared the shit out of me. And you _know_ I don’t get scared easily. Not like this.’

Derek nods, because he does know how brave Stiles is. He saw it first hand, and had gathered as much from the stories he heard. Stiles is brave and loyal, he would do absolutely anything to keep safe the people he cares for, even if that means diving head first into an extremely dangerous situations.

‘What does she do to the men?’, Derek asked, blinking away the thoughts

Stiles shrugged. ‘The information is inconsistent, different sources say different things, but, bottom line… Doesn’t matter if the siren eats the victim’s larynx or rapes them to exhaustion or if she just kills them, plain and simple. It’s bad, either way.’

‘Mother told me that….’, Derek swallows and looks towards Isaac. ‘She told us that the type of magic mermaids use is very rare.’

‘Yeah’, Isaac nodded. ‘Almost impossible to find nowadays.’

‘And only magic can fight magic’, Stiles sighs.

Derek frowns, sharply turning his head towards him. ‘I thought you said there’s no such thing is magic.’

‘I lied’, Stiles winked, unapologetic.

‘How did you stop Scott?’, Allison asks then, making her way to her boyfriend and taking his hand.

‘I shot 20 bullets in her stomach to stop her from singing.’

‘And it worked.’, Isaac frowns.

‘Shortly, yeah. Just enough for me to snap Scott out of it and run the hell away from there. I put some headphones in his ears and blasted music as high as it would go, and, as we got further away from the lake, it was enough for Scott not to hear the song anymore. Well, it might have been a scream. A screech, really, its-’

‘So the song compels men to go to her and, I assume, step into the water.’, Lydia interrupts.

‘Yes’, Stiles nods. ‘I don’t know what she does to them after that, but I think it’s safe to assume that death is imminent.’

‘Maybe it isn’t after men’, Lydia frowns. ‘It didn’t affect you, maybe it’s just after werewolves.’

Stiles blinks a few times, eyebrows going up. ‘That’s a good theory.', he says, slowly. 'But it might be wrong, considering that all the lore that I have read said a siren’s song affects only the people who are interested in woman. True, some sources referenced the existence of male sirens, but this isn’t the case, it has boobs and… other things.’, he gestures towards Lydia’s hips, blushing a bit. ‘I think it’s safe to say it’s after men. And I don’t think it counts if you’re human or … another mythical creature.’

‘I resent that term.’, Isaac shoves Stiles’ shoulder.

‘I’m a racist bastard’, he agrees, easily.

‘Stiles. It didn’t affect you.’, Lydia insists.

‘I’m gay’, Stiles nods. ‘And you and Allison are straight, so you two can come with me and we can kick some siren ass.’

Before Derek or Isaac get a chance to argue, Allison speaks up.

‘How do you kill a siren?’

‘Either by ripping her throat out, or her heart. Again, inconsistent sources.’

‘I need to stay here’, Allison frowns. ‘To put up the mountain ash and in case the wolves need to get out.’

‘I’ll go’, Lydia nods. ‘We just have to stop by our apartment so I can get more ammo and some decent clothes.’

‘I’m coming too.’, Derek nods.

‘No you’re not!’, Stiles turns around to face him.

‘Yes I am, I’m not letting you two face it alone.’

‘Dude, you’re bi. She could woo you in, and I don’t think it’s gonna help killing her if we’re wasting out time saving you.’

‘Stiles’, Derek says, gently but determined, raising an eyebrow and staring him down, while Stiles’ face develops a small blush.

‘I’m right, though.’, Stiles insists. ‘You are bi.’

Derek rolls his eyes. ‘Not so much these days.’

‘I’m not risking it!’, Stiles almost yells, throwing his hands up in frustration.

‘Well I’m not risking you.’, Derek says, equally annoyed. ‘Or Lydia’, he adds, when he realizes how that sounded. ‘This isn’t up for discussion, I’m going. If it makes you feel better, Allison can give you mountain ash and if I get… wooed, you’ll trap me until you kill her.’

They glare at each other for a few seconds, but Stiles nods, eventually, muttering about how he doesn’t need physical mountain ash.

‘Allison’, Derek turns towards her. ‘Lock this place up as soon as we’re out.’

‘Call us when you’re safe.’, she nods and hugs Lydia.

-

They take Stiles’ jeep and when they pass the _You are leaving Night Vale_ sign, Derek hears it. It’s a scream, a lot louder than Lydia’s banshee scream, and in a higher tone. But, at the same time, it sounds like she’s whispering. Derek’s skin gets goose bumps and he shudders, but he doesn’t have the urge to run towards it.

‘I’m fine’, he says.

‘You can hear it?’, Stiles asks.

‘Yes. And I don’t want to go near it.’

‘Oh thank god’, the man sighs and changes gear, going just a little bit faster.

‘I can hear it too’, Lydia frowns. ‘I have no urges either, but why can I hear it?’

‘Must be a banshee thing’, Stiles frowns.

‘Clearly’, Derek agrees. ‘You’ve always heard things other people couldn’t, Lydia. In certain moments. Do you… are we driving to a graveyard?’, he asks as softly as he can.

‘The graveyard’s on the other part of town.’, Stiles frowns.

‘Inside joke’, Lydia tells him. ‘And, no, Derek, we’re not. It doesn’t… feel like that. It doesn’t feel like anything, just… unpleasant.’

‘Creepy.’, Derek agrees.

And then, they get to the lake. They get out of the car, Derek flexing his claws and Lydia and Stiles pulling the safety off their guns.

The siren isn’t in the lake, but on land. She’s standing close to the water, with her hands open towards the sky, head thrown back and screaming. And Stiles was right, it is absolutely hideous. She’s tall and thin, looking somewhat human, but not quite, her body is disproportionate. The feet are too long and thin, and her breasts are too big for such a figure. Derek can see the bones of her hips and ribs and there are several cuts on her chest and thighs that are still bleeding black blood. She has slim fingers that end in long, curled, black nails. There’s mold covering part of her light blue skin, and it looks wet, shining in the light of the jeep’s headlights. Her hair is long and almost white, tangled and looking burnt, and her big blue eyes look lifeless.

Derek hears Lydia gag a bit, and he understands her completely. ‘I cannot express how badly it smells.’, he whines.

‘What of?’, Stiles asks, curiously.

‘Swamp. And death. And sex. Decay.’

‘What’s the plan?’, Lydia asks, staring the creature down. They’re a few feet from her, standing in a line, but she didn’t attack, didn’t even acknowledge their presence, keeping on screaming.

‘We incapacitate her with bullets in legs, arms and stomach, and Derek claws her organs out?’, Stiles says, sounding somewhat hopeful.

‘Deal’, both Lydia and Derek say.

The next second, Stiles and Lydia are firing their guns, the distinct smell of a gunfight filling Derek’s nose. Oddly enough, it calms him. All the bullets hit their target, but Derek didn’t have time to dwell on how good Lydia and Stiles were, because, a minute later, the siren fell back, her head hitting the water. But she didn’t stop screaming. 

Derek made his way towards her, Stiles and Lydia close behind, guns still aimed at her. He took a deep breath and lowered himself towards her, claws angled over her throat and her heart, but before he got to slice her, the siren lunged forwards.

She was too fast for either of them, and before he even realized what was happening, Derek was completely underwater, and the siren was kissing him, her lifeless eyes boring into his. He couldn’t breathe, but he couldn’t pull his head away, because her hands were on his neck, black claws digging in. He tried to move his hands and fight her, but he couldn’t move, the ice cold water paralyzing him.

‘This is how I die’, he thought. ‘I hope she doesn’t kill my pack.’

The silence was defying. He couldn’t hear anything but the fast beating of his heart. Derek started praying, an old prayer his grandmother thought him when he was young. He prayed for his pack, for their wellbeing and for their safety. He prayed for Allison’s smile and Lydia’s hair, for Isaac’s snoring. He prayed for pizza and movies after the full moon, for Scrabble wars and early mornings spent on the couch. He prayed for Stiles, for his smile and his moving tattoos, for his electric touch and amber eyes. He prayed for Scott, for his contagious joy and the love he has for Allison.

He prayed for his family, for their scents and their smiles. For seeing them soon.

Derek prayed for all the good things he has experienced, for all the loving memories he gathered in his life, and for all the things that didn’t happen yet.

He was just about to close his eyes, because he knew he wouldn’t be able to keep his breath for much longer. He’s shivering and his whole body hurts, but his lips and neck feel completely frozen, because of the siren’s touch. And then, out of the corner of his eye, he sees something. And again, a heartbeat later. And again, and again, and again, alternating between his left and right eye, until it comes fully into his view.

Tentacles. Black, long, thick, tentacles.

Before he could even think about what is happening, two of them grip the siren from her waist and pull her back. But Derek can’t hold his breath anymore, and he can’t keep his eyes open.

The last thing he’s aware of before darkness encircled him was the siren being crushed by the tentacles, and someone calling his name.

-

Derek came back to life with a gasp. Even before he managed to open his eyes, his lungs were filled with the scent of sea, of coffee and cherry cigarettes, of Stiles. He opened his eyes and they met amber ones. Stiles still had his hands on Derek’s chest, probably because of cpr, Derek’s mind supplied, and he was looking at the wolf with so much desperation and need. His hair was wet, he was crying, and his lips were swollen, but he smiled. He smiled at Derek, and lunged forward,  grabbing Derek’s face between his hands and pressing their lips together. It didn’t last more than a second, he didn’t even have time to consider kissing Stiles back, but it was, like everything Stiles does, electric.

A shiver ran down Derek’s spine, and it wasn’t because of the icy water he almost drowned in.

‘I’m so glad you’re alive’, Stiles said once he detached himself from Derek’s face, but he still kept his hands on Derek’s hips.

‘How am I alive?’, Derek frowned, trying to remember what happened. He couldn’t focus long enough to remember, but he felt his body shutting down. So he stood up, against Stiles’ protests and headed to the jeep, collapsing into the back seat.

‘I’m going to pass out’, he told Stiles, bluntly. ‘I’ll be fine, but I need sleep.’

He doesn’t remember anything else.

-

When Derek wakes up, he’s in his bed, just in boxers, but buried under multiple blankets. His body feels better, and his brain isn’t fried anymore, so he groans and reluctantly gets out of bed, because he hears his pack puttering around in the living room, Scott and Stiles too. So he puts on a pair of sweatpants and a hoodie and heads straight to the couch, taking a seat near Isaac.

Lydia and Allison fuss around him for a few minutes, making sure his body temperature is back to normal and that his reflexes are in order, but he assures that he is feeling fine.

All the while, Stiles looks worriedly towards him. Derek can feel his nervousness, but he doesn’t understand why Stiles is so twitchy, not until Lydia asks him what happened underwater.

‘Tentacles’, he remembers suddenly, and stares at Stiles’ arms, even though he’s wearing a long-sleeved shirt.

‘Tentacles?’, Scott asks, and it sounds strained.

‘She was kissing me and I couldn’t breathe.  I was just about to let go when…’, Derek shrugs, but doesn’t take his eyes off Stiles’ arms. ‘Two tentacles pulled her away from me, and crushed her. Next thing I know, Stiles was giving me cpr.’

He blinks a couple of times and manages to take his eyes off Stiles, and looks towards Lydia. ‘What happened from your end?’

‘He didn’t explain it.’, she sighs, looking at Stiles.

Stiles, who’s looking at Scott. They share a look for a couple of seconds, a whole conversation, it seems, until Stiles sighs and visibly deflates, the tension easing out of his shoulders. He rolls up his sleeves and when he raises his eyes, he looks at Derek, a lot more confident than before.

But Stiles doesn’t say anything. Derek does.

‘Only magic can fight magic.’

‘Yes’, Stiles nods. Out of the corner of his eye, Derek can see his tattoos moving. Judging by Allison and Isaac’s gasps, the rest of them can too.

‘I told you that I met the Kraken’, Stiles says, softly. ‘And that I have these tattoos because it changed my life.’

‘You also told me you can’t do magic.’, Derek counters.

‘I lied.’, Stiles says, shrugging. ‘To protect myself.’

‘From what?’, Isaac frowns. ‘From us?’

Stiles shrugged again, but he tensed up. ‘You know trust comes hard. I should’ve told you sooner, I admit to making this mistake, but… This is not something I share easily.’

‘Calm down’, Derek tells him, firmly, noticing that Stiles is getting worked up. ‘You’re clenching your fists and glaring at us. We’re not going to hurt you, you know that by now. So take a deep breath, and talk. Your Alpha already gave you permission and…’, he sighs, dropping all pretenses of sounding unaffected. ‘You know we won’t judge you. Please, tell us what you are.’

Stiles smiles, then, and takes a step forward. ‘I’m Stiles. But, I also happen to be able to control different forces of this world that allow me to take a familiar. Which happens to be a Kraken.’

Derek takes a big breath. It should surprise him, but, weirdly enough, it doesn’t. He takes in the people around him, and realizes that his pack’s emotions are fluctuating between shocked and curious. Scott just seems proud.

And Stiles… He seems sad. And hesitant. It feels wrong to Derek, so he starts talking over the defying silence that surrounded him.

‘A familiar is a creature that helps witches. It takes the form of an animal, a spirit, or even a person. Some myths say that their connection increases the power of the witch, some say the familiar itself has powers. The part of mythology that deemed witches as evil say that familiars helped them in their crimes. Inconsistent sources.’

He looks up, and sees Stiles watching him with a raised eyebrow.

‘Either way’, Derek continues, ‘a witch having a familiar is some very old magic.’

‘It shouldn’t exist anymore’, Isaac says, remembering Talia’s stories.

Derek nods and smirks at Stiles. ‘Your existence is not impossible. But it’s also not very likely.’

Stiles looks up, from where he’s been staring at the floor. He seems shocked, and Derek understands then, that Stiles is expecting him to be mad for hiding this from him. Or maybe he thinks the pack won’t accept him.

‘Stop being dumb’, Derek smiles.

‘I haven’t said anything.’, Stiles blinks.

‘You were thinking it. Stop thinking it. And start telling us how in all that is holy in the world, you got a fucking kraken for a familiar.’ Derek’s voice never sounded so incredulous, he thinks.

Stiles nods and takes a deep breath, making his way to one of the couches, sitting next to Scott.

‘Deaton is a witch. A normal witch, well, druid, actually. He mostly uses herbs and runes and, occasionally, spells.’

‘Oh crap.’, Isaac sighs, making Scott laughs.

‘He’s not so bad’, the Alpha tells him. ‘Once you learn not to touch his things, you’ll be fine.’

‘Anyway’, Stiles interrupts. ‘When the… Alpha thing happened. When he took me and kept me and when we killed him… I didn’t exactly stab him with a pipe. I… uh… it was a trigger. I got so mad when Scott came and started fighting him. I saw Scott losing, and I was furious, and it triggered me, so I, uh…’

‘Basically’, Scott says, putting a hand on Stiles’ knee to stop it from bouncing. ‘Stiles controlled the Alpha long enough for me to slash his throat.’

‘Control?’, Lydia asks.

‘Paralyzed him, lifted him off the ground, threw him in a wall, that sort of thing.’, Stiles waves a hand around.

‘Okay’, the redhead sighs, gesturing for him to go on.

‘So, we figured something was wrong.’

‘Different, not wrong’, Scott corrects his friend.

Stiles nods and continues. ‘We knew, by that point, what Deaton was, and we went to him for help. And he did. He started teaching me and guiding me, but it became clear that I wasn’t exactly like him.’

‘So you’re not a druid?’, Allison asks.

Stiles flinches. ‘I am, but I’m also not. It’s complicated, I’m sorry. I am a druid, but I’m…’, he hesitates.

‘More powerful than Deaton’, Scott explains. ‘You shouldn’t feel bad for saying it, dude. We know it’s true and you should be proud of it. You did just save Derek’s life.’

Stiles just shakes his head. ‘So, when it became clear that he couldn’t help me anymore, he sent me to some friends of his. In Europe.’

‘Your microphone is magic.’, Derek says, remembering the radiations it was giving away at the station.

‘Yes’, Stiles smiles. ‘It’s… it’s for protection, I guess. Like you wolves have an anchor, I have my mic. I don’t really need it, for control. I have enough control because of my familiar, but it’s nice having the mic close. It’s a reminder of my adventures is Europe.’, he chuckles.

‘Lovecraft was American’, Lydia says, out of nowhere. ‘He wrote about the Kraken, how did you find it in Europe?’

Stiles is biting his lip, trying not to laugh. ‘Well, you see… you keep saying THE Kraken. It’s doesn’t work like that. Just like you can’t say THE werewolf, cause there’s more than one.’

‘There’s more than one kraken?’, Isaac shrieks, making Stiles and Derek snort.

‘Yes, Isaac, there is more than one kraken. There’s few left, though. And they’re scattered around. I… I didn’t exactly find him. I went to Europe to gather information, not find a familiar, but he found me. In Finland. And the… bond Derek spoke of … it was obvious and unavoidable. My familiar does make me stronger, if needed. He doesn’t appear unless I call him, and he has a will of his own, he wouldn’t help me if I was doing something wrong. Our bond keeps him alive, so… It’s a two way connection that is beneficial for both of us.’

Everyone takes a minute to let that sink in, but Derek can’t hold back the question anymore. So he leans forward in his seat and frowns at Stiles, managing to ask in a completely serious tone.

‘What about the tattoos, though?’

Stiles laughs. ‘I really just got them cause I liked how they look. Yeah, they do have a meaning, which you know now, but…’

‘They’re sexy as hell’, Lydia rolls her eyes.

‘Damn right!’, Stiles grins.

‘Why. Do. They. Move?’, Derek insists, flashing his eyes and growling a bit.

‘They don’t’, Stiles snickers. ‘It’s the magic equivalent of an optical illusion. I was just messing with you.’

Derek groans and hits him with a pillow. Then he orders pizza for everyone.

-

Things change between them from that point on. Derek doesn’t know why, but Stiles’ attitude towards him shifts. They still texts multiple times a day, but Stiles doesn’t ask him anything, nothing important, at least. He answers when Derek asks him things, mostly about his abilities, but it’s colder than before. No jokes, no sarcasm, just strained, short sentences.

They don’t talk about the kiss. At all. Sometimes, Derek asks himself if it really happened. Maybe it was all his imagination, his mind praying tricks on him, due to the lock of oxygen. He did just come back from the dead, maybe it was a hallucination.

The uncertainty stops when Lydia asks him if he plans on ever doing something about Stiles.

‘About what?’, he asks, faking confusion.

‘I was there, you know. I saw it.’, she says, softly, smiling at him.

‘Saw what?’

‘How he screamed in desperation the moment the siren took you. How he jumped in the water instantly. The way it looked, I think he forgot for a couple of seconds that he could call for help. So, yes, he only got underwater after the kraken showed up. But, you know, he did carry you to the surface. By himself. And did cpr on you. And kissed you when you were breathing again.’

‘I thought I imagined that’, Derek manages to whisper after a few beats.

‘Oh, Derek’, Lydia sighs. ‘Does it matter? That he’s a druid?’

‘Of course not.’

‘Does it matter that he lied?’, she asks softly, after a beat.

‘I understand why he did it. I don’t… It doesn’t bother me.’

Lydia seemed surprised. ‘If it’s not that, then what is it?’

‘Him.’, Derek shook his head. ‘He’s been acting off. He’s… pushing me away.’

‘So do something’, Lydia said, softly. ‘If you want it, if you want him, do something. Go get him.’

When Derek didn’t say anything, and  took his eyes off her, Lydia came closer and took his hand in hers.

‘He’s worth it, Derek. You don’t see the way he looks at you. When you’re not looking. He cares about you as much as we do, no doubt about it. Maybe even more, considering how he almost had a heart attack when your heart stopped beating.’

She ran her other hand through his hair, and he leaned into her touch.

‘You’re worth it too, Derek. You deserve to be happy. So stop pinning, and go get your man.’

With that, Lydia kissed his cheek and swaggered away, flipping her hair. Derek smiled at her cockyness, but in the end, he took her advice.

-

 _Derek:_ Do you want to have dinner tonight?  
 _Stiles:_ Sorry, can’t. I have plans with my dad.  
 _Derek:_ Tomorrow?  
 _Stiles:_ I’m not sure, I think Scott asked me to help him with something.  
 _Derek:_ Maybe the day after that.  
 _Stiles:_ Maybe, yeah.

For more than a week, Stiles brushed off Derek’s attempts at seeing each other. And one afternoon, Derek was beyond frustrated. He took the day off from work, stayed home and cleaned the whole apartment, hoping he’d be able to calm down. But Derek couldn’t wind off, because all he kept thinking about was Stiles. About every time they saw each other, every conversation they ever had. About Stiles wit and his sarcasm, about his eyes and his tattoos, about his braveness and the love he carries for his alpha. About how much Derek cares for him and about how much this separation is hurting him. So he decided to give Stiles one last chance to make things right, before he does.

 _Derek:_ Are you free tonight?  
 _Stiles:_ No, sorry.  
 _Derek:_ Is there a reason why you’re avoiding me?  
 _Stiles:_ I’m not.  
 _Derek:_ You are. I just wish you’d tell me why.  
 _Stiles:_ I’m not avoiding you.  
 _Derek:_ So you’ll have dinner with me tonight?  
 _Stiles:_ I really can’t.  
 _Stiles:_ And I have to start the show now, ttyl.

Derek sighed. It was almost 9 pm, but that didn't stop him from turning on the radio and getting dressed. A voice in the back of his mind that sounded suspiciously like Lydia made him put on a pair of really tight black jeans and a light blue t-shirt that he remembered Stiles complimented a while back.

He made himself a cup of coffee, half-listening to Stiles talk about oranges. As he made his way back to the couch, coffee in hand, he dialed Lydia.

‘Is there a reason why you're not at work today?’, is what she answered with.

‘Isaac told you I was okay.’

‘Yes, but he also told me you didn’t give him a reason for playing hooky on us.’

Derek sighed. ‘I needed to think, clear my head.’

‘And?’, Lydia asked harshly.

‘Tell me I’m not making a mistake.’

‘That depends. What are you going to do?’, the redhead seemed confused.

‘Dress for the best, prepare for the worse, and corner him when he leaves the station.’, Derek said in a completely straight voice.

‘When you say corner…’, Allison asked after a beat, and Derek realized he was on speaker and that his pack was still working at the lab.

He sighed and spoke in the most normal tone he could manage. ‘I mean wait until he leaves the radio station and wait to talk about _feelings_.’

There was silence on the other end of the line, until Isaac started giggling. Allison soon followed, and even Lydia was smiling, even though she was trying to talk in a bossy tone.

‘And what shall you be wearing?’

‘The black jeans that you got me and the blue t-shirt you got Allison to buy me.’

‘Perfect’, Lydia giggled. ‘Go get him, tiger.’

‘Wolf’, Derek deadpanned. ‘I’m a wolf, not a tiger.’

Lydia just sighed and hung up.

-

When Stiles finished his show, Derek jogged to the radio station. Now that he moved in close to it, he got there before Stiles came out of the building. When he did, he was laughing and bumping shoulders with Scott. He was wearing a pair of red jeans, a simple black t-shirt and a red hoodie, a shade brighter than the jeans.

The moment his eyes landed on Derek, who was leaning against Scott’s car, Stiles froze and stopped breathing. He let out a weird noise, somewhere between a whine and a sigh, and it was the most depressing thing Derek ever heard, it broke his heart.

But he tried to ignore it as best as he could, smiling at the way Scott pushed Stiles towards the car.

‘Hey, Derek!’, Scott grinned. ‘What are you doing here?’

‘I was going to take Stiles out for dinner.’, Derek smiled. ‘He said he had plans, but I wasn’t sure.’

‘I have plans’, Stiles said, but it was weak and it was directed at his shoes, rather than at Derek’s face.

‘That was a lie’, Scott pointed out, winking at Derek. He took that as an encouragement.

‘So you’re free for dinner, great! You must be starving, your show ran a bit longer today. Where do you want to go?’

Stiles didn’t answer. He let out a long breath and closed his eyes. Derek sensed his annoyance and rage, but he could also see the hurt underneath it all. He looked to Scott for guidance.

‘There’s an Arby’s down the block’, he said. ‘You two should go there and talk. You know about Stiles and curly fries.’

‘You can’t force me to do anything’, Stiles said, but it was mostly teasing and directed towards Scott.

‘Nope’, his Alpha grinned. ‘You’re right, I can’t _force_ you. But Derek can bribe you.’

‘With curly fries and tight jeans’, Derek grinned, making Scott bark out a surprised laugh and Stiles blush a deep shade of red, that stretched under the collar of his shirt.

‘Come on, Stiles.’, he continued in a soothing voice. ‘You’ve been avoiding and I get that, it’s your choice. But you aren’t being fair towards me, I think I deserve an explanation. So. You either tell me right now why you’re pushing me away and we’ll argue in front of your best friend and the rest of the street, or we can go to Arby’s, calm down while we eat something, and discuss this like adults.’

Stiles was silent for a moment, and when he looked up, he looked at Scott first (who was grinning and nodding excitedly, like a kid) and then at Derek. He nodded, said ‘Curly fries and chocolate milkshake’, and started walking down the street. Derek blinked, watching Stiles’ back moving away. Then, he took a deep breath, whispered a ‘thank you’ to Scott, and jogged to catch up with, quite possibly, the best thing that didn’t happen to him yet.

-

They were silent all the way to Arby’s. Both of them were tense and it was all very awkward. Derek hated it, but he pushed through it, clenching his fists every now and then, and taking deep breaths. He needed to do this.

It took Stiles all of 5 minutes to inhale his fries and milkshake, and by then, Derek was done with the cake he ordered too.

When Stiles finally looked up at him, he stared for a couple of seconds, and Derek tried to offer an encouraging smile.

‘I can’t do this’, Stiles sighed, shaking his head.

‘Please’, was all Derek managed to say.

Stiles let out a sigh and brushed his fingers over his forehead. Then he stood up and angrily headed towards the exit, whispering ‘Come on’. Derek wouldn’t have heard it without his werewolf enhanced abilities.

He followed Stiles outside of the diner, ignoring the frowny looks people were giving them and the whispers of _Awwwh, I hope they’re not fighting_.

Stiles led them to a children’s play ground close by, but it was way almost midnight, so there wasn’t anyone around. The lights were out and it was pitch dark. Derek didn’t have any problem navigating around the playground, flashing his eyes and letting them glow red. He was surprised to see Stiles was managing to walk around the slides and sandbox easily, and he realized he must have had the layout memorized.

They got to a swing set, and Stiles sat on the left one. He gasped when he turned around and saw Derek’s eyes, but he wasn’t afraid, just genuinely shocked.

‘Sorry’, Derek let his eyes return to normal and nervously shoved his hands in his pockets, standing in front of the swing Stiles was sitting on. ‘It’s dark, I can’t see anything without the eyes.’

Stiles chuckled and the next thing he knew, Derek was staring up at a small ball that was floating above their heads, giving away a faint yellow light. But it was enough to see around, so when he looked down at Stiles, he saw the way he was smirking slightly and wiggling the fingers of his right hand.

Derek blinked. ‘Right. Magic. Sure. That’s going to take some taking used to.’

Apparently that wasn’t the right thing to say, because Stiles’ smile fell and he closed his eyes. When he opened them again, he was looking anywhere else, but at Derek.

The wolf let him be for a couple of minutes, giving him a chance to put his thoughts into order. Derek didn’t move, though, at first, standing up in front of him, casting a shadow over the man’s legs. But when Stiles started pushing back against his feet, swinging slightly, he had to pull back. So he took a seat on the swing next to Stiles, but he straddled it, rather than copying Stiles’ normal position, thus being able to see the man.

‘Talk to me, please.’, Derek said after a few minutes of watching Stiles chew on his bottom lip and swing slowly back and forth.

He stopped swinging, then, and turned to look at Derek.

‘Are you really going to make _me_ say it?’

‘Yes.’, Derek nodded. ‘Please. I just… give me a reason, why you’re avoiding me. And I’ll understand and back away. But... I need a reason.’

Stiles frowned. ‘I lied to you.’

‘I know, and I understand why you did it.’, Derek said with conviction.

Stiles bit his lip. ‘I shouldn’t have lied to you.’ Then, he turned his head and looked away from Derek.

‘Why are you avoiding me?’, the wolf asked.

When Stiles responded, he tried to seem strong, but he didn’t succeed much, Derek could still hear how his voice wavered every now and then.

‘I did it before you could. Because I thought that if I did it, it would hurt less. I figured… you’d just let it be, that you’d expect it, that you’d be happy you weren’t the one doing it. But,’, Stiles laughed and it was a broken sound, ‘here you are. Ignoring my attempts at being decent and pouring salt on the wound.’

Then, Derek understood. And boy, did it hit him. Stiles thought Derek wanted to get away from him. Stiles was pushing him away for his benefit, even if he was clearly hurting himself. Stiles was doing the right thing, he was pushing himself away from Derek so that the wolf didn’t have to do it himself. Stiles put Derek’s well being above his own and the realization of it made something snap inside of Derek.

‘You’re an idiot’, he smiled, fondly, hearing so many emotions in his own voice, emotions he didn’t think he was capable of anymore.

Stiles must have heard it too, because his head turned to Derek in an instant.

‘Trust doesn’t come easily’, Stiles said, repeating words Derek knows he’s said before.

‘None of this has been easy’, Derek argues. ‘Not for me. And I… I get what you’re doing. I understand now. And you’re an idiot.’

‘Why are you smiling?’, Stiles hisses. He’s biting his lip, but Derek can still smell the tears forming in his eyes.

‘Don’t I get a say in it? There’s two people in a relationship and my opinion should count, considering it’s my life too.’ Derek’s speaking softly, but he believes the words with such vigor, they come out strong.

‘Thank you for doing this, but you couldn’t be more wrong. You think I want this, you think I want to push you away, but I don’t.’

‘Why not?’, Stiles says in a voice too loud for the eerie silence that’s settled over the playground. ‘I lied to you, about something big, something important. I’m no better than Kate or Jennifer, why would you still want me around?’

And that, that makes Derek’s blood run cold. His eyes flash involuntarily and he has to grip the chains of the swing to keep his claws still hidden.

‘You are nothing like them. And don’t you forget, I lied to you too. I didn’t tell you what I was for a long time, Stiles. I don’t know when I would have told you if it weren’t for Scott. I’ll never… I get it. You’re different, just like I am, and sharing this piece of yourself isn’t easy, no matter how much you care about someone.’

At that, Stiles looked away and wiped the tears from his eyes with the back of his hoodie. But that didn’t make Derek stop.

‘And you care, I know you do. You care about me, you saved my life, Stiles. How could I want you away, away from me? I don’t, I don’t want that.’

Stiles shook his head and got off the swing, angrily walking away from Derek, but not saying a word. The wolf followed him quickly, grabbing his wrist to stop him. They faced each other, Stiles with a broken look and tears in his eyes, and Derek with a fond smile and heartbeat erratic.

‘I want you, Stiles. How can you not see that?’, he laughed. ‘I didn’t think I’d ever feel anything for anyone, and for years that’s how it’s been. But then you just… flustered yourself into my life and I can’t imagine it without you in it anymore. Please understand that I care about you and that I am willing to…’

He takes a step closer to Stiles, noting how their hearts are beating almost in sink, how Stiles smells like the sea, like black coffee and cherry cigarettes, how his hair is sticking out in all the directions, how his eyes flicker to gold when the light hits them. How his hands are shaking and how he’s biting his lower lip. How he can’t look away from Derek and how desperate he looks.

‘I am willing to wake up every morning with you in my bed, buy ashtrays so you can smoke in my bedroom, make you black coffee in the morning. I am willing to have dinner with your father and bowling night with Scott. I am willing to help you organize your library and wash your hair in the middle of the night. I am willing to fight right beside you and protect you when you can’t. I am willing to listen to you when you tell me what I’ve done wrong, because I will. But that’s okay, because you will too, but we’ll work through it. Because, Stiles, I am willing to take everything you are willing to give me.’

Stiles didn’t say anything. He just stopped breathing altogether, staring into Derek’s eyes, blinking slowly.

‘I moved to Night Vale, Stiles. You really think you weren’t part of the reason?’

Stiles eyes grew wider, but he still didn’t move or say anything. So Derek did the only thing he could think of, the thing he has been wanting to do for months, even if it took him a long time to realize it. He moved his hand down from Stiles’ wrist, intertwining their fingers, and fisted his other hand in Stiles’ hoodie, bringing him close.

The moment their lips touched, Stiles took a big breath through his nose, making Derek smile against his lips. The kiss was dry and sweet, lazy and soft. But Derek felt every second of it, sparks of electricity exploding deep into his heart.

After a few seconds, Stiles started moving and the air shifted around them. He brought his hands up and put them around Derek’s neck, one of them moving gently in his hair. He started moving his lips, and the kiss became so much more.

Derek’s whole body was burning and he could still smell Stiles’ tears and he promised himself, right there and then, in the middle of the playground, that he would always do anything in his power to make sure Stiles doesn’t shed a tear ever again.

Over the sound of their heartbeats, Derek hears a small explosion nearby, followed by the scent of roses. Reluctantly, he stops kissing Stiles and turns his head, not letting go of him just yet.

The ball Stiles made isn’t giving off a faint yellow light anymore, it’s exploding furiously, giving off bright specks of fireworks into the night. The whole playground is now lightened by red, orange and yellow fires and everything around them smells like a spring garden.

When Derek turns back towards Stiles, the man is smiling so lovingly, it makes his heart skip a beat.

‘Oops’, Stiles whispers innocently, bringing his hands on Derek’s waist and hugging him gently, rubbing their cheeks together and muttering about stubble rash.

'How are you even real?', he asks a few moments later, emotion making his voice waver. 

Derek smirks. 'I'm not impossible, my existence is just not very likely.'

-

They go to Derek’s apartment, even though they don’t talk about it. They strip silently in his bedroom, never turning on the light. When they get into bed, both of them in their boxers, their legs seem to instantly intertwine and their bodies are flush against each other, making Derek’s skin grow hotter than usual.

They trade lazy kisses, not needing to say anything more. They fall asleep holding hands, Derek’s nose buried into Stiles’ skin, his tattoos oddly still.

‘Us’, Derek thinks before falling asleep. ‘I’m part of an _us_ and I’ve never felt this happy’.

-

Derek wakes up in the morning to the sound of heartbeats. Too many heartbeats, considering he fell asleep in Stiles’ arms. However, he is still by his side, judging by the heat he’s radiating. Stiles is awake too, and his heartbeat is a bit elevated.

Derek opens an eye and sees people around his bed. He blinks a couple of times and then acknowledges the fact that the whole pack, Scott included, is in his bedroom, around his bed, looking down on him and Stiles, grinning broadly.

‘No’, he groans after glaring at each of them, and buries his face into Stiles’ neck.

Stiles just laughs and drags the comforter over their heads.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> SO UH. If you've read anything else from me, well, a one particular fic, you may have noticed I really like the whole magic/familiar thing. Sorry, I repeat myself :3


End file.
